Eclipse eye safety and airline phone scams: CBC's Marketplace consumer cheat sheet - Action News
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Eclipse eye safety and airline phone scams: CBC's Marketplace consumer cheat sheet

Miss something this week? Here's the consumer news you need to know.

Plus: PC Financial ends its banking deal with CIBC and ineffective back pain medication

Eclipse glasses, like this real pair being sported by a three year old in North Carolina, are in high demand in advance of the Aug. 21 solar eclipse. (The Associated Press)

Miss something this week? Here's the consumer news you need to know from CBC'sMarketplace. Get this in your inbox every Friday.Sign up here.

Protect your eyes during the eclipse

Planning onwatching the eclipseMonday? Regular sunglasses won't be enough to protect your eyes.

NASA suggests you make sure to have thesespecially-designed glasses.But watch out for fakes. One Vancouver woman who wasgiving away free glasses found out the hard way.

Back still sore? This could be why

Lower back pain is experienced by most people at some point. (Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock)
You might be taking a medication that some doctors are calling ineffective.

Patients are beingprescribed anti-seizure and nerve pain medications for a common type of chronic low-back pain.

But a new review suggests there's alack of studies supporting the effectivenessof these off-label prescriptions.

That airline call is probably a scam

RCMP in Alberta are warning of ongoing phone scams involving airlines. (Shutterstock/Gajus; Air Canada)
Heading off on a trip? The RCMP is warning people planning vacations to be extra careful about phone scams this summer.

Police say con artists are pretending to represent airlines like Air Canada and tryingto get credit card information.

If you receive a suspicious call, Air Canada says you should hang up and call the airline's official number.

TheCIBC-PC Financial breakup

President's Choice Financial will no longer offer the kiosks and ATM machines after CIBC's Simplii Financial begins service Nov. 1. (Nicole Ireland/CBC)

After 20 years together, CIBC and PC Financial are ending their banking collaboration.

CIBC will swallow PC's banking operations and will rebrand it as Simplii Financial. But it's not the end for PC. It will keep its loyalty point program and branded MasterCardcredit card.

One financial expert says this isn't necessarily a good or bad thing for consumers.

Fewer Canadians cutting cable

About 100,000 Canadians cut their cable TV cord in the first half of this year, well below 2016's mid-year pace. (Radio-Canada)

The pace of cord-cutting is slowing down for the first time in years.

A new report shows Canada's biggest TV providers lost fewer cable customers in the first half of this year than the same time in 2016.But according to at least one expert, it's not all good news.

Case in point: The number of cable subscribers is still declining thanks to streaming options and other services.

What else is going on?

That's a lot of points: Pharmaprix, the name under which the Shoppers Drug Mart chain operates in Quebec, has agreed to paymore than two billion Optimum points to settle a lawsuit.

A lawyeris working to get certification for an$825-millionclass action lawsuit in Canada against Fordover transmission problems in some of its Focus and Fiesta models.

Ontario's privacy commissioner is investigatingafter a man found the names, birth dates and health card numbers of 60 patients on the back of his wife's prescription.

This week in recalls:

Watch what you eat.These raspberry mousse cakeswere recalled due to norovirus andthese chicken hot dogsmay contain bone. Also,this toy hammer may crackand create a choking hazard, andthis shampoo was recalledbecause it is contaminated and could cause infections in people with weak immune systems.

Real estate agents breaking the rules

With bidding wars for houses cloaked in secrecy, how do you know your real estate deal wasn't already rigged? Our hidden cameras catch some agents in the act. Watch it again onTVthis weekend oronline.