In this week’s issue of the Morrison County Record, there is a long article on page 12 of section A about preventing identity theft. There’s some good advice in the article, although in some instances of identity theft, I’m not sure how people can really protect themselves more than they already are. I mean, if the State Department of Motor Vehicles is allowed to sell our names and addresses and an identity thief gets hold of one of these lists, there’s not much we can do about that now, can we?
Anyway, I made it through to the end of the article and discovered these final words:
“For more information, go to”
That’s it. Empty space. Nowhere to go to. Apparently, identity thieves have stolen the end of the sentence and don’t want us to learn any more about their tricks.
Where did I put my eel-skin wallet?
Phineas F. A. Pickerel
P.S. The identity thieves didn’t get to the online version of the story, where the sentence comes to this conclusion: “the Minnesota Attorney General’s Web site at www.ag.state.mn.us.”
February 10, 2008 at 10:05 pm
“Apparently, identity thieves have stolen the end of the sentence” Phineas you made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of the fishbowl.
February 11, 2008 at 10:33 am
Identity theft is growing enormously because of the ease in which we allow it to be committed and the low risk of getting caught. You are not defenseless. Being vigilant with all of your personal information on every front is key to this being successful.
Many services you can do up front and proactively are free.
Have you opted out of those dangerous credit offers?
You know, the same one being stolen from mailboxes…www.optoutprescreen.com
Have you placed a FREE (don’t bother paying $100-$120 every year for this, like some make you think you need to do) fraud alert on your credit report, or even a credit freeze? Have you reviewed your credit statements lately? http://www.annualcreditreport.com
Have you added your name to the national do not call registry? http://www.donotcall.gov
Do you fill out chances for free drawings? These are great for ID thieves because you get pegged as an optimist and will likely end up on a marketing firms sucker list…the ones purchased by ID thieves…remember you gave them your contact info in case you “win”.
There is a lot you can do or better yet “stop” doing to reduce your risk of being a target.
Will it take a bit of work, sure, but it will be much less of a hassle than if your identity is stolen.
The best defense against identity theft is self defense. Self defense starts with you!! And that is way more beneficial and best of all it is FREE!
February 11, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Thanks for the comments, Michael. The Record article covered a lot of things people could do to avoid identity theft, but I don’t remember it talking about avoiding signing up for free drawings. Good idea, that.
I’m glad I could make you laugh, Brooke.