BUSINESS BRIEFS
Identity theft not by acquaintances
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Major identity thieves obtain the personal information they crave from retailers, financial companies and other businesses about half the time, a new study suggests, undercutting a common perception that potential victims should worry most about being scammed by people they know.
The federally funded study being released today paints a complex portrait of the signature crime of the digital age, one that has been the top consumer-fraud complaint to federal authorities for six consecutive years.
The report was produced by the year-old Center for Identity Management and Information Protection at Utica College in New York.
WAL-MART LIKELY TO THINK SMALLER
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may talk about ideas for new, smaller stores as a way to bolster its flagging U.S. growth when it holds an annual two-day conference for investors and financial analysts starting tomorrow.
Until now, Wal-Mart has mainly run large discount stores and Sam's Club membership warehouses in the United States. But sales growth at Wal-Mart stores open at least a year, a key retail measure, slowed to 0.8 percent through September this year, from 1.9 percent for the last full fiscal year and 3 percent in 2005.
AT&T TO EXPAND MUSIC DOWNLOADS
SAN ANTONIO — AT&T Inc. is making Napster Inc.'s entire music catalog of more than 5 million songs available for wireless download starting in November.
The service will expand the company's over-the-air download offerings beyond the independent music it offered through eMusic.com and allow it to compete with offerings from rivals Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp.
San Antonio-based AT&T has not said which devices will work with the new music service.
Songs will cost $1.99 each, or $7.49 for five per month.
