Tips on How to Protect Yourself From Online ID Theft

[Larry_OHF]

I found this online this morning, and wanted to share it with my online family.

• Never purchase e-mail-advertised products. Aside from encouraging the spammers, this also proliferates your e-mail address and any personal-identifiable information to other spammers, such as name, address, phone number, credit-card numbers and more.
• Always protect your personal information. Only share your credit card, Social Security number or other personal information when making purchases from a company or financial institution that you know and trust.
• Never respond to requests for personal information via e-mail. You will never be asked for a password, credit card or social security number from a legitimate source via e-mail. Beware of official-looking notices that require you to "give up" your personal information or face dire consequences.
• Verify every transaction. If a Web site address looks different from the name of the organization that you're dealing with, or if you have any concern whatsoever about your transaction, look for a phone number on the Web site and contact the organization to verify that it is valid. Do not do business with any organization that doesn't clearly identify itself on its Web site, including providing a physical address and phone number.
• Beware of get-rich-quick schemes. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Never pay "up front" for loans or credit. Legitimate lenders never "guarantee" a loan or credit card before you apply.
• Refrain from replying to a spam e-mail at all — even to ask to be removed. Legitimate companies will remove your e-mail address as requested, but disreputable senders use this as validation that your e-mail address is, in fact, "live." They can then sell your address to others. A better response is to forward spam e-mail to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov.
• Set up a separate "public" e-mail address for use online. Use a separate, free e-mail address for online subscriptions or participation in newsgroups, contests or other purposes.
• Use an e-mail filter to help eliminate unwanted spam. Secure your computer against other risks, such as viruses, hackers, etc.

Source: http://www.bcentral.com/articles/tech/124.asp

[ 09-15-2003, 09:33 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Granamere]

Also one of the things I like to do is go to www.godaddy.com and buy any domain name for $8.95. I think you can get .us for $4.95. Buy nothing else you do not even need a website for this to work. Now go to www.zoneedit.com. They give you free DNS and mail forwarding. Setup all of your mail from the new domain to go to your current mail. Now when giving out your e-mail address you change the info before the @domain.name to be the name of the product or company you are giving it to. eg Ironworks@domain.name. This will still come to me but I know where it came from and if Ironworks sells my e-mail address I know who did it. (Six months later.) Hum kind of funny that ironworks@domain.name is getting tons of spam. Humm now I set anything coming there to go to the trash can. I love e-mail rules! [img]smile.gif[/img] All of this for only $8.95 a year! Also if you get tired of the spam you are getting at the end of the year get a different domain.name and start over. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Granamere