Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I I N O. X M AY 1 , 2 0 1 7 6 Arts and culture inject $765M into Maine's economy Arts and cultural organizations employed 16,000 people and contrib- uted $764.9 million in workers' income to Maine's economy in 2014. Statistics released by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis and reported April 20 in the Portland Press Herald show that roughly $157 million of the total went to people working in the core arts and cultural institutions — museum staff, actors, dancers, performing arts company staffers and so on. Another $562 million was generated by people in industries supporting these institutions. LePage nominates public advocate Gov. Paul LePage nominated Barry Hobbins, a veteran Democratic lawmaker who served numerous terms in both the Maine House and Senate, to be the state's next public advocate representing the interests of Maine ratepayers in proceedings before the Maine Public Utilities Commission. LePage cited Hobbins' four decades' experience as a private practice law- yer in telecommunications law, real estate, municipal and administrative law, land use planning, business and corporate law, criminal and family law. Maine Public reported that Timothy Schneider, a LePage pick whose four- year term as public advocate expired in March, apparently fell out of favor with the governor when he supported a stakeholders' solar power bill last spring that ultimately died after LePage's veto was sustained by lawmakers. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E Maine Department of Environmental Protection announced funds for Culvert Upgrades for 28 projects across the state. Recipients included Mattawamkeag, River Road; Warren, Sandy Shores Road; Hallowell, Outer Central Street; Dayton, Buzzell Road; Auburn, Hotel Road; York, Cider Hill Road; West Bath, Sabino Road; Durham, Auburn-Pownal Road; Wade, Gardner Creek Road; Yarmouth, Ledge Road; Buckfield, Shedd Hollow Road; Chelsea, Nelson Road; Pittston, Parker Road; Phillips, Bridge Street; and China, Pleasant View Ridge Road; Monmouth, Sanborn Road; Brunswick, Hacker Road; Farmington, Front Street; Porter, Kennard Hill Road; Madison, Shusta Road; Porter, Sarah Bridge Road; Willimantic, Wilson Stream Road; Cumberland, Mill Road; Orono, Main Street; and Rockland, Thompson Meadow Road; Chub Cove Road Association, Cooper; and Grand Lake Stream, Water Street. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization in Cambridge, Mass., and Washington, D.C., released "Clean Energy Momentum: Ranking State Progress." The report examines each state's clean energy "past, present and future" and finds that the states leading the transition to a clean en- ergy future, in descending order, are: California, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Oregon, Maine, Washington, New York and Iowa. Sappi and Biobased Maine put out joint RFP Sappi North America, in partner- ship with Biobased Maine, issued an RFP seeking biobased technology to incorporate into existing operations at Sappi's Westbrook mill. e mill is the B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E Former con artist offers business tips to avoid scams B y R e n e e C o r d e s P o r t l a n d — Frank W. Abagnale Jr., a former con artist now working with the FBI and as a corporate cybercrime consultant, was in Portland to raise awareness about scams and fraud. He spoke on behalf of the AARP Fraud Watch Network, which launched an interactive tool last year allowing con- sumers to report fraud schemes and provide alerts from law enforcement and other public agencies. "I am a believer, and I have been my entire career, that education is the most powerful tool to fighting crime," he said in an interview with Mainebiz before the April 20 event. It's rewarding at this late stage of his career, he said, to help everyday people avoid identity theft and other cyber- crimes that could cheat them out of their life savings. "These scams are the same scams as 50 years ago — nothing different other than the delivery," he said. Made famous by the movie "Catch Me if You Can," which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the con artist and Tom Hanks as the FBI agent chasing him, Abagnale's exploits included posing as an airline pilot, a physician and a lawyer. After serving time in prison, he became an adviser to the FBI and other government agencies on a pro-bono basis. He also advises companies including Experian PLC, LexisNexis Group and Trusona, an Arizona-based company on a mission to get rid of all passwords in the next two to three years. Tips on how business owners can protect themselves Abagnale shared his thoughts on how business owners can protect themselves from being duped. His first suggestion has to do with checks, which he says are becoming more popular again because people feel more comfortable with checks than banking online. "So I tell people, if you have a small business and you write checks, you should first of all buy secure checks," he said. "Today, that's easy because there are a lot of compa- nies who provide checks." Two examples are SAFEChecks, of Canoga Park, Calif., and Intuit Inc., a Mountain View, Calif., company for whom he consults. Asked what makes the checks secure, he said there may be a hologram, a so-called void panograph that prevents someone from color-copying, chemically altering or scan- ning the checks. "Ten years ago they were very expensive so small businesses couldn't afford them. Now they're very affordable," he said. He also recommends that small businesses ask their banks about getting a fraud-detection service known as "positive pay." Companies on positive pay send a daily list of issued checks to their bank with the number of each check, the dollar amount and the person the check is made out to. Later when the bank receives the checks, it compares them against the company's list. Anything that doesn't match, the bank doesn't pay. If that's too cumbersome, another option is "reverse positive pay," where the bank sends a daily email to the business listing all the checks presented for payment that day. If any of the presented checks don't correlate with the company's bookkeeping records, it can investigate. "It's a great, great technology," Abagnale said, "very effec- tive in doing away with counterfeits, forgeries and all that." For shredding, he recommends using a micro-cut shredder, which he said turns paper into confetti the size of a grain of rice. "When you use a straight ribbon shredder, at the FBI we put those back [together] in less than 30 minutes," he said. "If we can do it, so can a criminal." B R I E F Frank W. Abagnale Jr., the former con artist now working with the FBI and as a corporate cybercrime consultant, was in Portland to raise awareness about scams and fraud. P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R S O U T H E R N

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