I want to stress the importance of protecting yourself from this crime. So if you haven't read my previous tutorial on Identity Theft , I shall make the suggestion you do so now. If you've already read your way throught it, I thank you for doing so. I make an honest attempt to make all tutorials I write as lively as possible. I personally hate reading them, let alone writing them. BUT somebody has to do it.
So here we go! I would like to think back for a moment about the dumpster diving I previously mentioned to you. What if I told you we can eliminate alot of the mail you throw away all together. So you may kill two birds with one stone.
1:/>Having to worry about your mail getting stolen, lost, or borrowed.
2:/>Having to become completely paranoid about your Identity.
Did you realize that you can opt out of receiving pre approved credit offers? Think about it for a second. When you are reading your logs(you really do read them any ways right?). And you see an "attack from a canned kiddie tool making request for a common sploit on stuff like cmd.exe. When they aren't successful they give up. They give up because suddenly they aren't successful. Nothing more than a pain in the ass right.
Identity theives are the same way. I would say the vast majority of them dumpster dive. If you have a pre approved card come to you, then I know for sure I can get you. Then suddenly my success rate triples. Because you have established credit. As you see, if you do not do this you are suddenly open to the most common exploit on your identity. I can hear you now, so tell me how I can opt out already. Okay, Okay!
This is a link to a page that is very audviouse in nature. For those of you that still don't get it follow these simple instructions.
[joke]
Just get three envelopes, a pen, and three stamps. Print the forum three times and complete it three times. Fill out the envelopes respectivley. Fold the fourms up to fit into the envelopes, and insert them. Seal the envelopes, apply the stamps, and go to your mailbox and mail them. There now you have no excuse. DO IT NOW.
[/joke]
Excuse the joking tone, and please hear the seriousness of what I just told you.
It will take three or four months for these to actually "kick in" so to speak. But, it will work. I personally haven't received an offer in months. I also don't get bothered by telemarketers.
Yes I'll tell you how. Patience my young Jedi learner.
How many times has the phone rang during dinner time? How many times has the phone rang
and kicked your net connection? How many times have you just wanted to tell these clowns to quit calling you? You can, or at least most of you can immediately.
This link is a nation wide questions and answers. The no call list has been available varying state to state for sometime now. This new nation wide list however could prove to be promising. Not only will it allow you to eat dinner in peace.(sorry cant do anything about your in-laws) but you can install a sort of "firewall" on your phone. This method doesn't block people you have an established service with, nor will it stop non-profit organizations. But if you remember again for a moment. Don't give anybody information over the phone. Especially if you do not establish contact. Now suddenly you receive a call from so and so. They claim to be with the flying yak saddle company. You now know two things, either they violated the no call act. Or they are theives. To lower the false positive here. I would but my money on the later of the two. A company isn't going to risk an eleven thousand dollar fine for violating the no call list.
Now even further down the rabbit hole of prevention. Did you know you can opt out of junk mail, form places like say Best Buy. They send you ads because you have a card with them for example. By doing this you can now remove your name, for the most part from most mailing lists. Now you should receive very few ads in your mailbox. This method is really only usefull to prevent harassment. However if you feel as if you may be at high risk for identity theft, you may want to listen up. If you allowed all companies you do business with to auto bill your checking account, and request that statements not be sent to your house at all. It could appear as if you do not even live there. Kinda cool huh? No paper trail with the post office, how do we know you even exist? Now remove your name from the phone book, and it is suddenly very difficult to even figure out your name, let alone anything about you.
This method will not stop letters from places of medical coverage, and billers for medical services. In some cases perhaps this will not stop non profit organizations either. If you really wish to hide yourself from public eyes. Then may I suggest again get a P.O. Box. Don't get one from a 3rd party however. Go with the post office. Often the P.O. Box part of the Post office stays open twenty four hours a day.
Here is an interesting page on junk mail. Please reference this site for more information.
This is just for information. I do not suggest this service because t isn't completely necassary yet. However you must determine your level of threat. Here is the link
Here is another interesting page on this topic. Kind of redundant, however still informative.
Just for good measure, since it comes up daily. Run a good anti-virus software. However please keep it updated. I am not concerned for the health of your computer. I am concerned for your identity. Run a firewall, especially if you have a connection that is always connected. Keep your personal stuff out of harms way. Encrypt it, please. If possible keep all that information on a PC that is "unhooked". Disable autocomplete. Search the net with for your OS and see if it applies to you. Example - disable autocomplete win xp home. While your at it erase the saved information by clicking those two boxes below the checkmark you are going to remove. Go, go do it now! Always logout of a website you frequent. And for the sake of redundancy, UPDATE YOUR COMPUTER. No I'm not going to spoon feed you just search the forums here.
I received lots of feedback on the first tutorial. I am already brain storming the third. I thank you for your support. I apologize to the few that we're already victims of this crime. If you have any specific questions please feel free to ask.
Future: The third tutorial is going to discuss the future of Identity theft prevention. Big coorperations know that if we become victims we can't spend our money with them, due to theft clean up costs and temporarily bad credit. So they are finally helping the consumer out. Look for it. Till then be safe and stay free.
-36739
