mysecurepc

mysecurepc.com has posted a web page with many privacy tips for everyday life. One of the most unbelievable privacy concerns is the U.S. Post Office. When I read the list of who gets sent your information in their privacy statement I about fell out of my chair.

Also take a look at identity theft prevention tips for statistics on identity theft in 2006. Still at the top of how thieves get your personal information is lost or stolen wallets and purses. Unfortunately, business malfeasance is at the top, too.

Doug

It is 2007 and time for tax related information to be mailed out. One of the easiest and effective ways identity thieves get your information is through your mailbox. Crooks know between Jan and April are the prime months for personally sensitive information to reside in mailboxes. After all, tax statements, 1099s, and other related mail has all the information on them an identity thief wants.

One way to help thwart thieves is to get a locking mailbox. They make in nearly impossible for a thief to steal your mail but very easy for the mailman to use. And only you have the key - not the mailman.

Doug

Think it is hard to get checking account information? It is not. Say you are filling out a check at a store to pay for groceries. A kid walks by with a cellphone and snaps a picture of your check. He goes home and blows up the image on a computer. And there it is. All the information needed to commit bank fraud.

Doug

This scares me. The latest home security worry is “lock bumping” - not only is it effective it leaves no trace of forced entry.

Lock bumping is easy: a special made key, which locksmiths (and many criminals) know how to make, is inserted into a lock and hit with an object such as a screwdriver handle. Presto! The lock opens. The instructions have been posted on Internet.

Break-ins using this method have been reported in Florida, Canada, and England. The unfortunate side-effect of lock bumping is since there is no signs of forced entry most insurance companies will *not* pay out.

View the video at Fox News.

Doug

Little did I know something as innocuous as bill paying would be so bad.

I signed up for online bill paying service through my credit union several months ago. All went well until I received a check in the mail for the amount of a bill I paid (credit card payment). After investigation it turns out the credit card processor (outsourced by the credit card company) said the account number (read: credit card number) was not on the check and they were too lazy to look up my name to find the account! The bill paying service issues a check against your account and sends it to the bill payee - with your account number on the check.

Since I have had so many postal problems (lost mail, wrong mail, no mail) this concerned me. I cannot believe a company would write your credit card number on the check - but that is what happened. Correspondence from the credit card company only has the last 4 digits of the card on it.

Doug