4 The Courier sun • APRIL 21, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com Volunteer patrol in Glendale looks to help cops battle financial crimes across area By Suzanne Monteverdi [email protected]/@QueensCourier Members of the 104th Precinct Civilian Observation Patrol (104COP) are ready to help police stop identity thieves and other perpetrators of financial crimes. The patrol’s president, Mark Pearson, relayed information on Thursday night in Glendale about the growing prevalence of ATM skimmer crimes that he learned while attending last Tuesday’s 104th Precinct Community Council meeting. “There’s different ways for perpetrators to skim information,” Pearson pointed out. Personal data can be hacked through data breaching or pulled from machines by a physical device skimmer. Targeted technology includes store card readers, gas pumps, ATMs and bank door card readers. According to the NYPD website, “identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in America today.” A newer development has been use of Bluetooth technology to lift personal information. Crooks install Bluetooth-enabled mechanisms inside of gas pumps to pull individual personal data information from afar. “Apparently there’s universal keys for these gas pumps,” Pearson said. “Perpetrators go in there, and they have a special adapter for certain gas pumps, and it’s a bypass.” To prevent becoming a victim of this particular trend, one member in attendance suggested going inside the station and paying for gas there, instead of swiping a credit or debit card at the pump. Another member recommended setting up text message or email alerts with banks or creditors in order to find out about potential data breaches as quickly as possible. Pearson, along with many in attendance, recognized the scope of the task at hand. “ATM machines are in bodegas and 7-Elevens and pizza places — all these things,” said Pearson. “They even have these little bypasses, another Bluetooth thing, where it looks odd — a box next to a cable — and it’s collecting your information. It’s scary.” Despite the potentially sizable undertaking, all in attendance were in favor of helping survey the Glendale area for these machines. “We’re going to see if we can set something up with Detective Dina Moretti of the NYPD Financial Crimes Division and the 104th Precinct to see maybe if we can go out and start scouting out these ATM machines,” Pearson concluded. Photo by Suzanne Monteverdi 104COP President Mark Pearson discusses financial crimes. QUEENS LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS HAVE SOME OF THE HIGHEST LIFE EXPECTANCIES, STUDY SAYS By Angela Matua [email protected]@AngelaMatua A new study finds that low-income residents in Queens live longer than people from disadvantaged backgrounds nationwide. A study recently published by The Journal of the American Medical Association compiled tax records and Social Security Administration death records from 2001 through 2014 to measure the relationship between income and life expectancy through geography. The study, along with a New York Times analysis, found that on average, 40-year-old Queens residents with a household income of less than $28,000 lived for 82.6 years. When broken down by gender, the average life expectancy for men was 80.2 and 85 for women. Since 2001, poor residents in the New York area gained about 2.5 years of life expectancy. Other cities such as Gary, Indiana, and Las Vegas, Nevada, have some of the lowest life expectancy rates with 77.4 and 77.6 as the mean average. Residents who make more than $100,000 per year in Queens are expected to live about three years longer than their poorer counterparts. The study shows that nationwide, location does not have a big impact on residents making more than $100,000. Nationwide, the richest one percent of American men live 15 years longer than the poorest one percent and that number is 10 years when applied to women. Some factors that may be driving the high numbers are the smoking habits of Queens residents (only 19.3 percent of Queens residents smoke compared to 26 percent of Americans); the number of immigrants (studies have found that immigrant children are healthier than American-born children, and 46.1 percent of foreign-born residents that make up Queens is much higher than the 11.7 national average); and the money that New York City pours into social services compared to other cities. Queens has higher life expectancy than seven other surrounding counties including Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx. The “World’s Borough” shares the same numbers with its neighbor, Brooklyn. Researchers found that factors such as access to medical care, physical environmental factors or income inequality were not “significantly correlated” with life expectancy. The study does not definitively answer the causes of the longevity gap and how exactly it is changing over time. Overall, the study found that differences in life expectancy across income groups decreased in some areas and increased in others and the differences were correlated with health behavior and local geographic characteristics. A study in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that Queens is one of the best counties for life expectancy for the poor.
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