Ellen PhillipsI'm pretty paranoid about identity theft, and this time of year is the premiere time for tax refund thieves to abscond with billions of taxpayers' hard-earned money.
Here are some legal ploys used by crooks to steal your identity. A great book, "Scam-Proof Your Life" by Sid Kirchheimer is my resource for this week.
Anyone who has attempted to find an old friend on the Internet is aware of the pop-ups on websites that offer that person's current address, phone number and other personal information for a fee.
In fact, Kirchheimer paid $33 for a full self-search and discovered personal tidbits even he had forgotten. Over 200 data broker companies (people-search sites) are 100 percent legal, as are their methods to collect and sell data. Info gathered may include hometowns and high schools, which are helpful to thieves trying to answer website security questions.
* Opt out. These online line firms not only collect your personal information for their own use but may give or sell it to others for as little as $1. Some privacy policies allow us to remove our data, and it pays to opt out at the major brokers: Acxiom, Ameridex, Google, InfoUSA, Intelius, LexisNexis, PeopleFinder.com, and Spokeo.
With more than more than 250 people-search sites, it might behoove us to hire an opt-out service, such as DeleteMe. While its $125 yearly fee sounds steep, the cost is minuscule compared to the thousands of dollars an identity theft victim often loses in the attempt to recover his or her good name.
* Check all likelihoods. Your name may be filed under different properties and, believe me, the thieves have that process down pat. First and last, middle and last, initials and last, deliberate misspellings that still go through -- any and all possibilities exist to entangle you in a sticky web of deceit.
* Watch what you write. Product-warranty cards are a great example of what not to do; the warranty remains in effect as long as you save the purchase receipt. And those free cruise sweepstakes? Pass them by. The same holds true for entering contests you don't know for certain are legitimate.
Social media, like Facebook, is a wealth of information for ID thieves; the more personal data you post, the more likely thieves have of becoming you.
Email Ellen Phillips at consumerwatch@timesfreepress.com.