New Jersey Baby Boomer

Just down the road from me a few houses, a former neighbor of mine went through an experience that is becoming more and more common, and more and more public…identity theft. It had such an impact on her that she was unable to access her bank accounts, or use credit cards until matters were cleared up, and that doesn’t happen overnight. Ultimately, it upset the finances so much, that she never quite got back on her feet, at least in our neighborhood…and eventually sold her home and moved out of the area. While not everyone may experience such a dramatic affect, this is something we should be taking seriously.

Thankfully, we have many things available to us to protect us from these predators, and whether we take advantage of them or not is determined by how seriously we take the problem. I have been doing some things, like shredding or burning (in our woodstove) papers with personal info on them, being careful about giving out my social security number, and using care when I make a Credit Card Payment online.

People who research identity theft that takes place when you make a purchase online are finding that often employees at the place where you shop online are the guilty parties in stealing identity. This means you need some form of protection when you shop online, something to think seriously about as we approach the holiday season (I do all my Christmas shopping online!).

I visited a very helpful site today, you can get to it through the earlier “live link”, the site is called Shop Shield®, and offers protection by completely hiding your identity when you make a purchase with your credit card online. Your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, passwords and email addresses are protected through their unique way of replacing that info with anonymous info. Your personal information is never made available to the website where you are shopping.

I’d suggest you visit the site to find out how this works. A few more thoughts:

- Service is FREE when you pay with a checking account.
- Secure Site Registration included with each transaction.
- Shop Shield® is Guaranteed 100% Secure!