Comments on: A word about identity theft?

By: Bozz Mozz

Bozz Mozz — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:04:51 +0000

Was it the post about what month/year were your children born in? I didn’t even open that post, it was the first thing I thought of. So if we’re paranoid losers, we’ll be paranoid losers together.

We often post our kids’ first names here, if we have facebook pages it’s easy enough to figure out last names and towns. Add an age and, Voila… a recipe for identity or credit theft.

I’ve had my identity stolen. As much of a nightmare as you think it is to restore/expunge, you end up wishing it were that easy. I spent days in court and at the police station (she got arrested in a ***** prostitution sting). They never fingerprinted her or confirmed her ID. It was awful. I also don’t use my real name on facebook. Won’t happen twice if I can help it.

By: ?HEARTS 808 IS MISSING HAWAII?

?HEARTS 808 IS MISSING HAWAII? — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:55:59 +0000

So you’re saying I SHOULDN”T post my Social Security #, Drivers License and Birthdate on here for all to see?

By: desmeran (emeritus)

desmeran (emeritus) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:19:47 +0000

i didn’t see your post but i agree wholeheartedly with your premise. a little info here, a little info there. it all seems innocuous enough, but with google linking lots of different posts and sites, pretty soon there’s a lot more information than you would ever have agreed to give a complete stranger. people should be very cautious about the type of information they post online.

it’s not just identity theft; it’s giving out info that hackers will use to figure out online passwords (not just to dumb things like y!a but also to, say, your online bank account) or giving creepy cyber-stalkers way more ammunition than they ought to have. it’s also information that is often traceable by your employer, your grandmother, and your creepy ex-boyfriend. if you wouldn’t announce it to the mobs at the mall, don’t announce it online.

By: Alyssa's mommy

Alyssa's mommy — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:23:39 +0000

I agree with you. A while ago I made a post just like that and everyone gave me a million thumbs down. So I added the person as my contact, went through her questions, used a reverse lookup online, and private messaged her her name, addy, phone number, high school name, hospital she is delivering at, due date, what her car looks like from her picture sites, etc, and said “SEE, a stalker could easily jump you at the hospital when you go to deliver because you put way too much info on yahoo answers for people! Please consider taking some of it down.” This only took about 10 minutes to research.

While it is uncommon we still have stories on the news all the time about psycho ****** who fake pregnancies then gut pregnant women and steal their babies. Don’t be a victim. Keep your private life safe. That is why we don’t put “It’s a boy!” signs in our yards anymore!