Shopping Safety
1 February 2008 Since I do a lot of online shopping, I’m always pretty scared about my personal information being sold or stolen. I try to be as careful as possible. I thought I was safe. I wasn’t expecting it last year when my Dad received an e-mail from his e-mail provider saying that he needed to change his password. He did so & the next morning the phone started ringing with all of my dad’s contacts calling. Apparently the email asking for his password was a scam. The scammers then sent an e-mail to everyone in my dad’s address book asking for money.
At first, I thought it was funny. Then I realized that my Dad gets e-mails from the bank & a lot of other financial places. We changed the passwords, tried to be as educated as possible & nothing bad happened. The very next day he signed up for lifelock. I’d heard the commercials with the CEO giving out his real social security number. They have a $1,000,000 Secure Guarantee & it only costs $10 per month. They ask the credit bureaus to set up a fraud alert. They get your name removed from junk mailing lists where you’d be sent credit card proposals. You get credit reports sent to you. If you ever lose your wallet, just call them & they will contact & cancel all of your cards & documents. They’ll even hire lawyers if your identity is stolen & restore any money to you that was lost. My parents have really enjoyed the life lock system & will probably stay with it for the rest of their lives.
