I woke this morning to the newscasters carrying another story about identity theft and the things the average person should do to avoid becoming a victim. For the most part, it is basic, common sense information; but there is more to protecting yourself of which many may be ignorant.<\/p>\n
\u00a0For one, you should be shredding every piece of mail that comes to you with financial offers or information. So many banks and loan companies have your information and routinely send you offers for credit with your critical information pre-printed in the paperwork. There should be a law against this practice. I have complained to the institutions repeatedly and they have told me they would stop sending me such offers; I still get them.<\/p>\n
It infuriates me they are so careless with my personal information it is floating around in the mail for anyone to snatch. So, when the offers reach me, I take them and shred them.<\/p>\n
If you are not shredding<\/em> this financial information coming to your house, you are putting yourself at risk. Simply tearing the paperwork up will not suffice. It has to be shredded<\/em>. Anyone can take torn pieces of paper and reconstruct them to harvest the information.<\/p>\n The bad guys are expert at gaining information from you. Another method they use is by way of telephone surveys. Whenever I get a call like this, the first thing I say is, \u201cI am on the Do Not Call Registry and this call is in violation.\u201d I follow this up with a comment about never, and I mean never<\/em>, giving out information to anyone over the phone unless I have placed the call. Then I follow through by hanging up. I may seem rude, but protecting myself is much more important.<\/p>\n Here is something else you need to consider in these modern times – the Internet and social media.<\/p>\n Facebook has boomed onto the scene in an explosive manner. There are millions of users and the crooks are delighted. Some have come up with ingenious ways to harvest private information from consumers. For instance, all the little games, particularly those asking questions about you or your friends and family, are ripe for culling private information.<\/p>\n Another technique you have to be aware of and avoid are \u201capps\u201d with fees hidden in the small print. I once found a $9.99 monthly charge to our cell phone bill initiated by such an application in Facebook. I caught it after about three months and when asked about it, my cell service provider explained the situation. He said it was legal by the law, but morally crooked. He was able to refund us the fees and put a permanent block on our account to protect us against such thievery in the future.<\/p>\n Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I have a Facebook account, but like other forms of information in my life, I manage it carefully<\/em>. If you are going to open a Facebook account, set the privacy switches high and then don\u2019t put anything up you don\u2019t want out in public.<\/p>\n The bottom line is that you have to be proactive in protecting yourself, both in print and online.<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n \u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I woke this morning to the newscasters carrying another story about identity theft and the things the average person should do to avoid becoming a victim. For the most part, it is basic, common sense information; but there is more … Continue reading