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Card-not-present fraud�fraudulent transactions where a credit card is not physically presented to a merchant�increased significantly from Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2016 when compared to the same period in past years, according to new information released by iovation, a provider of device intelligence for authentication and fraud prevention. Research by iovation revealed a 20 percent  increase in online retail credit card fraud  during the 2016 holiday shopping weekend when compared to the same period in 2015, and a 34 percent increase in online credit card fraud from Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2014 to 2016. In addition, iovation found: ? The percent of all online retail fraudulent transactions from Black Friday to Cyber Monday that involved credit card fraud: ? 2016: 59 percent ? 2015: 49 percent ? 2014: 44 percent ? The percent of all online retail fraudulent transactions in 2014, 2015 and 2016 that involved credit card fraud: ? 2016: 59 percent ? 2015: 42 percent ? 2014...

The mother of a girl injured in a 2014 sledding accident at a Nebraska school will get a $500,000 lump-sum payment as part of a  settlement with the school district�s insurance company . Valarie Potter was 14 when she was injured at what used to be known as La Vista Junior High School. She and a friend slid down a hill together and hit a chain-link fence. A lawsuit filed by Valarie�s mother Christina Augeri said Valarie�s legs were fractured and an artery in her left knee was torn. The lawsuit said Papillion-La Vista Community Schools failed to post a sign or otherwise warn people of the danger despite knowing that people often struck the fence while sledding, the Omaha World-Herald reported. District spokeswoman Annette Eyman said insurance company officials decided to settle the case, although it must still be approved by the court. Eyman doesn�t anticipate that the settlement will result in district officials imposing sledding restrictions on the school property. �You want your ...

Fires have damaged two Houston-area church complexes. Baytown firefighters early Monday responded to a blaze at the Living Hope Church. Pastor Kevin Kleinhez says he believes the fire was arson, several days after the church was targeted with graffiti. No damage estimate was immediately available. Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion. Temperatures were near 80 degrees at the time of the predawn blaze. A building that is part of St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church in Channelview burned early Monday. The Rev. Christopher Shackelford says the cause of the fire has not been determined. Nobody was hurt in the blaze at a structure used for social activities. Baytown and Channelview are about 10 miles apart, in eastern Harris County.

The truck driver who slammed into the back of a van carrying actor-comedian Tracy Morgan and several other people, killing one of them, pleaded guilty Tuesday and could avoid jail time. Kevin Roper entered the plea in state Superior Court to vehicular homicide and four counts of aggravated assault. Roper was driving a Wal-Mart truck  in June 2014 when he crashed into Morgan�s van on the New Jersey Turnpike. The group was returning from Morgan�s show in Delaware. The 37-year-old Jonesboro, Georgia, resident had also faced an aggravated manslaughter count, which is punishable by a 10-to-30-year prison term on conviction. Vehicular homicide carries a 10-year maximum prison sentence. Under terms of Roper�s plea, he can avoid prison if he performs community service and satisfies other conditions over the next three years. Comedian James McNair died and Morgan and three other passengers were injured in the crash. Morgan suffered a broken leg, broken ribs and head injuries. The former �30...

State Farm Insurance has paid $5 billion to its customers for weather-related catastrophes � damage to cars, homes and other property so far this year � the largest U.S. insurer of homes and cars said Sunday. That payout has been increased by wildfires, tropical storms and hurricanes during the summer, which came after last spring�s spate of tornadoes and hail storms. The company did not provide a comparable figure for the year-ago period. Through Sept. 23, State Farm has receive more than 970,000 catastrophe claims, stretching from wildfires in western Texas to storm damage in Maine. The company�s catastrophe claims work is in addition to the 11 million to 12 million other auto, home and business claims reported to the company in a typical year. Earlier this month, Allstate Corp said it had lost $500 million on  Hurricane Irene , much less than the $2 billion it lost from severe thunderstorms and  tornadoes  during April and May.

The financially troubled Kentucky School Boards Insurance Trust will disband, forcing school districts to search for new providers of workers compensation, property and liability insurance policies. The closure means financial consequences for all of the state�s 174 school districts, which will have to divvy up some $60 million to cover the cost of past insurance claims. The decision was announced publicly Monday in Lexington after leaders in each school district were personally notified. The Kentucky School Boards Association had turned the insurance program over to the Kentucky League of Cities to be administered about two years ago. KLC Executive Director Jonathan Steiner said Monday a financial review revealed the insurance program had fiscal woes that were worse than first believed, forcing the June 30 shutdown.

Enservio, a provider of contents inventory creation, valuation and replacement services and software,  announced ContentsITV (Insurance to Value), a personal property valuation system for determining accurate contents coverage for homeowners, condo owners, and renters. The system provides an online tool for owners and renters to generate accurate coverage estimates and customizable home inventories based on a unique household profile. The system ensures adequate underwriting for carriers and appropriate levels of coverage for each policyholder while providing 24/7 access to all inventories and valuations securely stored off property premises. Source: Enservio

Houston, TX, October 16, 2014 � Atlantic Specialty Lines (ASL), a wholesale broker and specialty lines MGA offering a variety of property, casualty, auto, professional, and personal lines coverages, is announcing a major addition to their Houston office. Looking to solidify their position in the Texas market ASL will be bringing on Suzy Popplewell-Baird to manage the territory. Suzy, a 32-year veteran of the insurance industry, will not only bring years of experience, most recently as a MGA Underwriter, but she knows the region and the issues it faces on a daily basis. She started her career working for the AIG Energy office in Houston and eventually made her way to Alaska where she served on the Alaskan Independent Agents & Brokers Board of Directors for 5 years. Suzy was awarded the AAMGA Achievement Award from the AIIAB for two consecutive years. Her areas of expertise include Package, Liquor Liability, Garage, Transportation, Environmental, Oil and Gas and Excess/Umbrella Cover...

Austin, TX, October 23, 2014 � Atlantic Specialty Lines (ASL), a wholesale broker and specialty lines MGA offering a variety of property, casualty, auto, professional, and personal lines coverages, is continuing its growth in Texas by announcing the addition of Rob Hardway in Austin, TX. Rob began his career in the insurance industry in 2003 as a Personal Lines Producer in New England. In 2011, he took an opportunity with a standard lines wholesaler in the Austin TX area. His experiences in both the retail and wholesale side of the industry give him a unique perspective into the needs of his agency customers. Rob�s understanding gives him the ability to focus on responsiveness and product knowledge, saving his agency partners time and money by identifying the right markets for their needs. Lee Branson, SVP of Personal Lines, states, �The addition of Rob in Texas reinforces Atlantic Specialty Lines� commitment to this territory and the growth of our personal lines portfolio. His many ye...

Zurich award, industry association designation demonstrate company�s accomplishments Jacksonville, FL, February 18, 2015 �  US Assure, a leading program administrator and insurance services provider with four decades of insurance success, recently won two prestigious industry honors�Zurich�s Spirit of Excellence award and the Target Markets Program Administration Association�s (TMPAA) Best Practice Designation. Program administrators specialize in managing, distributing and servicing programs for under served and niche markets. Jacksonville-based US Assure is the exclusive program administrator for the Builders Risk Plan insured by Zurich. Since its establishment in 1977, US Assure, along with its strategic partnership with Zurich, has built the number one builders risk program in the United States and Canada. Honorees of Zurich�s Spirit of Excellence award are a select group�less than 10 percent annually�of program administrators who work with Zurich�s Programs unit. The award rec...

An estimated 48.7 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this  Thanksgiving , an increase of one million travelers compared with last year, according to AAA. This represents the most Thanksgiving travelers since 2007. Driving remains most popular mode of travel � more than 89 percent of holiday travelers will drive during the Thanksgiving holiday travel period is defined as Wednesday, Nov. 23, to Sunday, Nov. 27. AAA expects to rescue more than 370,000 motorists this Thanksgiving, with the primary reasons being dead batteries, flat tires and lockouts. AAA offers a mobile app for members in need of roadside assistance. Last week, Allstate announced a new mobile app and website offering travelers $2 Roadside Rescues for those traveling by car this Thanksgiving holiday. According to a new Allstate survey, half of all millennials have had a roadside incident within the last year, yet 75 percent have never changed a tire on their current vehicle. Since the top three ro...

The government wants smartphone makers to lock out most apps when the phone is being used by someone driving a car. The voluntary guidelines unveiled Wednesday are designed to reduce crashes caused by drivers distracted by phones. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also wants automakers to make infotainment systems easy to pair with smartphones.Drivers could still make calls but the phones and automaker systems would lock out the ability to enter text. Internet browsing, video not related to driving, text from books, and photos also would be locked out. Navigation systems would be permitted, but with guidelines on how to avoid  driver distraction . Fatal crashes caused by distracted drivers are on the rise, and that�s contributing to a spike in traffic deaths during the past two years. The government says 3,477, or about 10 percent, of the more than 35,000 traffic fatalities last year involved distracted drivers. That�s up 8.8 percent over 2014. Traffic deaths spike...

A team of researchers from the iDAPT labs at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-University Health Network have developed evidence-based ratings on footwear that may reduce the risk of slips and falls on ice. The team has developed the first test of its kind in the world � the Maximum Achievable Angle (MAA) Testing Method � to validate  slip resistant footwear  on icy surfaces using real people in a simulated winter environment. With the help of WinterLab, an underground, state-of-the art research facility located at Toronto Rehab, researchers have tested the slip resistance of 98 winter boots, including both safety and casual footwear. The results have been published on www.ratemytreads.com � with only eight per cent of the 98 different types of footwear meeting the minimum slip resistance standards set out by the MAA test.For the first time, consumers will have winter slip resistance ratings available when they purchase winter footwear � similar to the ratings available for win...

The nation�s three busiest commuter railroads � which together serve nearly 1 million riders in the New York City area each day � continue to lag behind their smaller West Coast counterparts in installing sophisticated train-control technology that�s seen as an antidote to crashes involving speeding and other human factors, federal regulators said Monday. The Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit and Metro-North all made scant progress on implementing GPS-based positive-train control in the quarter ending Sept. 30, according to new Federal Railroad Administration data. Over the last three months, the LIRR and Metro-North have trained more employees on the system, the data shows, but neither they nor NJ Transit installed it on any tracks.The railroads say the federal data doesn�t fully reflect their progress and that they are still on track to meet a December 2018 deadline to install the technology, which is designed to automatically slow or stop trains that are going too fast. �Met...

Smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, wireless doorbell cameras, and keyless entry are among the top 10 smart home technologies for homeowners age 50 and older, according to new research from The Hartford and the MIT AgeLab. � Smart home technology  can make life easier for people of all ages, but it can be especially beneficial to those ages 50 and older as their lifestyles change,� said Jodi Olshevski, gerontologist and executive director of The Hartford Center for Mature Market Excellence. �Keyless entry is convenient for active households, especially if there are multiple generations living under one roof.  Wireless doorbell cameras  can provide safety and peace of mind to families who travel or to individuals who live alone.�The research consisted of an extensive review of 25 technologies by a panel of experts on housing, aging and technology. These reviews were used to identify the top 10 technologies that can make life easier, help with home maintenance, and e...

Growing megacities, air quality issues, excessive commute times, distracted driving and a desire for constant connectivity are driving the pursuit of autonomous cars. According to Petter H�rling, director US R&D Tech Centre for Volvo Cars � the company that invented the three-point seatbelt in 1959 � autonomous driving can alleviate the above-described issues. H�rling, a presenter at the International Association of Claim Professionals� annual conference held in Sonoma, Calif., said that many  autonomous driving initiatives  will begin with highway commuting. Offering a separate lane with no pedestrians, bicycles and intersections is an easy way to test self-driving vehicles, he said. Eventually self-driving cars will maneuver in low speed environments, such as during parking maneuvers. In 2014 Volvo began selling cars with the semi-autonomous Pilot Assist, offering steering assistance to keep the car properly aligned within lane markings without the need to follow another...