February 2013

TDS Telecommunications Corp. (TDS^®) customers have reported receiving voice phishing calls. These calls are fraudulent attempts to scam TDS customers into revealing sensitive account information. People should be extra cautious of any phone call requests to verify account information.

Voice phishing or “vishing” scams have become increasingly sophisticated. While people have become smarter about other phishing scams, so have criminals. They are switching tactics and using a form of communication that people trust—the phone.

Vishing typically begins with an automated phone call. The recording warns of fraudulent account activity on the persons account and directs them to call a toll-free or local number immediately. At this time, they are asked a series of questions about personal and account information.

Nearly 500 Middleton High School seniors will learn about the dangers of texting and driving and be encouraged to sign a pledge to never text behind the wheel during an event at the school on Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 8:40 a.m.

Middleton High School is teaming up with AT&T, AAA and the Wisconsin State Patrol in a public awareness campaign to urge the school’s students, and all Wisconsin drivers, that text messages can – and should – wait until after driving.

The school assembly will feature AAA’s distracted driving simulator, where seniors will have the chance to experience firsthand the dangers of texting and driving.  Students will also be shown an AT&T documentary called “The Last Text” that shares real stories about lives altered by someone’s decision to text and drive.

The Bruce Company, the nation’s 32nd largest landscape contract business and the largest in Wisconsin, has announced a strategic alliance with a well-known St. Paul-area company in a plan a press release said will help both partners thrive as the economy begins to grow again.

Reliable Property Services LLC, the seventh largest snow and ice management company in the country headquartered in Eagan, Minn., with offices and customers throughout Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, will combine its strengths with The Bruce Company’s national reputation in landscape design and construction, along with its 600-acre nursery operation in Verona, which will provide nursery stock to both companies.