Door-to-door scam arrests; Instagram for teens: CBC's Marketplace cheat sheet
Consumer and health news you need from the week
Miss something this week? Don't panic. CBC's Marketplace rounds up the consumer and health news you need.
Want this in your inbox? Get the Marketplace newsletter every Friday.
Police have arrested 2 suspects in connection with door-to-door sales scam
In an update to a story Marketplace brought you last year, two men have been arrested and three more are wanted on Canada-wide arrest warrants following a criminal investigation into a door-to-door sales scam that defrauded more than 200 people in Ontario, police say.
In the scam, salespeople visit the homes of older adults and vulnerable people and talk them "into home service and/or renovation agreements at exorbitant prices," police said in a release Wednesday.
Police said victims in many cases believed they were getting services for free through government rebates and grants.
The suspects would then allegedly use the fake agreements to register a Notice of Security Interest (NOSI) against the victims' homes without their knowledge, police said. Similar to a lien, a NOSI can be registered on the title of a property by companies when they finance or lease equipment on a property as a form of assurance that the contract will be paid.
The suspects then paid those NOSIs off with fraudulent, high-interest mortgages against the homes, police said.
In many cases, police said, the fraud left victims in "financial peril," forcing some to sell their homes.
Several seniors affected by the alleged fraud spoke to Marketplace last year. Many accused one of the outstanding suspects specifically of defrauding them, allowing him to live a life of luxury. Ontario Provincial Police said it seized a Lamborghini from the man last year. Read more
Instagram is trying to protect teens by introducing separate accounts
If you have a teen glued to social media, Instagram is trying to give you a bit of relief.
Amid backlash about how social media affects young people's lives, the social media giant is introducing teen accounts for those under 18.
The teen accounts will be private by default. Private messages are restricted, so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to. Content deemed "sensitive," such as videos of people fighting or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, parent company Meta said.
Teens will also get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes and a "sleep mode" will be enabled that turns off notifications and sends auto-replies to direct messages from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.
Meta acknowledges that teenagers may lie about their age and says it will require them to verify their ages in more instances, like if they try to create a new account with an adult birthday. The company also said it is building technology that proactively finds teen accounts that pretend to be an adult and automatically places them into the restricted teen accounts.
"The three concerns we're hearing from parents are that their teens are seeing content that they don't want to see or that they're getting contacted by people they don't want to be contacted by or that they're spending too much on the app," said Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta. "So teen accounts is really focused on addressing those three concerns." Read more
Tupperware, pioneer of food storage and sales parties, files for bankruptcy
Tupperware Brands, the company that revolutionized food storage decades ago, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Tupperware, based in Orlando, Fla., plans to continue operating during the bankruptcy proceedings and will seek court approval for a sale "in order to protect its iconic brand," the company said just before midnight on Tuesday.
The company is seeking bankruptcy protection amid growing struggles to revitalize its business.
Tupperware's sales growth improved some during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but overall sales have been in steady decline since 2018 due to rising competition. And financial troubles have continued to pile up for the company.
Doubts around Tupperware's future have floated around for some time. Last year, the company sought additional financing as it warned investors about its ability to stay in business and its risk of being removed from the New York Stock Exchange.
The company received an additional non-compliance notice from the NYSE for failing to file its annual results with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year. Tupperware had continued to warn about its ability to stay afloat in recent months, with an August securities filing pointing to "significant liquidity challenges. Read more of this Associated Press story.
What else is going on?
If EV sales are still growing, why are carmakers pulling back?
General Motors, Volvo and Ford all report shifting their electrical vehicle production plans.
There's a new commemorative coin that is out of this world
The coin celebrates a 50-year-old story of a UFO sighting near Langenburg, Sask.
Smugglers are advertising illegal Canada-U.S. border crossings on TikTok
Radio-Canada infiltrated networks offering to bring Indian migrants from Quebec to the U.S. for a price.
Marketplace needs your help!
Are you a veterinarian or vet tech who's worked for a corporately owned vet clinic? If you want to have a confidential conversation, we're ready to listen. Reach out to marketplace@cbc.ca.
Mind Your Business is your weekly look at what's happening in the worlds of economics, business and finance. Subscribe now.
Catch up on past episodes of Marketplace on CBC Gem.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
