URGENT: New Web Site Has Your Personal Info...

You pretty much post your bank account numbers evertime you right a check.

 

...to the person I am paying...accompanied by my signature. Not the same thing as we are talking about, though.

 

I've had to work very hard to convince my mother not to pay people she doesn't know with checks.

Occasionally she hires people down on their luck to work in her yard, clearing underbrush etc., and then writes them checks to "be safe" and so she will "have a receipt" for the work in case there's something wrong with it. :BangHead:

I tell her she stopped being safe when she hires people she doesn't know and then has them work at her home. Moreover, she gives them access to her bank account information and that "receipt" isn't going to do her a bit of good if she has a concern about the quality of work a Katrina refugee has done. It's not like she has much legal or business pressure she can levy against them.

Fortunately, she claims she's stopped doing that kind of thing, but I'm concerned that she may not exercise good judgement in other financial/privacy areas simply because things were not like the way they are now when her generation was in the prime of life.

 

Sorry, Luke, I missed this response.

Jesus says don't worry about the future; yet scripture commends a man for being prudent (1 Sam 16:18, Acts 13:7) and tells us it is wise to be prudent (Proverbs 12:16, 12:23, 13:16, 14:8, 14:15, 14:18, and more).

So my use of the word "prudent" here is the definition that states "discreet or cautious in managing one's activities" and "exercising good judgment or common sense," not the one that talks about "practical and careful in providing for the future."

We are all to be good stewards; that requires exercising good judgment and discretely managing one's activities.

Doesn't have to do with fear; has to do with being a good steward of that God has entrusted us with.

 

And, people print ALL SORTS of stuff on their checks, like SS numbers, phone numbers, driver's license numbers, etc. They also supply that information to any clerk at a check out that asks.

And, worse than checks, we give out our CC numbers everywhere also.

I once watched a group of guys that were angry at another person (there was a sale of some truck parts and the guy who sold the parts sold junk and refused to refund the money). This particular site polices their own as far as selling junk, refusal to pay, etc., and they can get rather rough.

As the forum debate started out, people started calling out the bad seller. When he refused to cooperate -- or even work out a solution (and worse, he started really bad-mouthing the entire forum, etc.) some people started to coerce him. They began by listing his real name. Then his address. Then pictures of his home. Then pictures of his wife and kids. Then his phone number.

Then, one post at a time, his credit card number -- one number per post. By the time they got to the second set of numbers, the guy decided that he was going to be wiped out and he made right on the sale. This entire episode took under 20 minutes... It was fun to watch, but scary also.

I recommend lifelock - the protective service that watches over one's identity. http://www.lifelock.com/

I also recommend that everyone pull their credit reports once a year. Don't go to that "Free Credit Report" dot com place. They are a rip off and only want you to give them your card number. Instead, the government has authorized a free credit report per year which is available at www.annualcreditreport.com This will redirect you to a Federal Trade Commission site where you can pull all three of the major credit reporting bureau reports for free with no strings attached.

 

One caution about Lifelock: It doesn't prevent identity theft problems. It acts more like insurance if/when identity theft happens.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/lifelock-identity-theft/

 

I used spokeo to find the name of someone who'd sent a nasty email to one of my team mates. The person created a silly email address to sent this lengthy and somewhat threatening email. we had suspicions, but didn't really know. So I put the email address in spokeo and BAM! just who we thought it was, but now we had proof. Nothing but the name showed up, but it was enough.