When you go online in search of free stuff you will often be asked to give out very personal information, like your home address, your phone number, and sometimes even your social security number or financial information. You need to be very careful about what kind of information that you give out on the Internet.
In this day and age, identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes. Identity theft is no laughing matter. Your credit can be ruined and your finances thrown into chaos by an identity theft. Sometimes it can take years to straighten out an identity theft and all the problems associated with it.
Most of the time, identity thefts occur when a criminal gets access to your name, social security number, or other information. Often, these people will buy personal information from a company that collects lists of people’s private information that can be gathered by giving out free items in exchange for people entering their information online.
Another problem that can result from going online to get free stuff is an increase in the amount of junk mail and telemarketing calls that you receive. Many companies will offer coupons or other small items for free to people who fill out an online form giving out their name and telephone number. They will then sell that information to marketing companies who send junk mail advertising and make telemarketing calls.
No one wants to have increased junk mail or get more telemarketing calls, especially if you use a cell phone. But companies will use the information you provide to verify identity, so giving out a false address or phone number won’t work.
Most of the websites where you can get free stuff are legitimate, but some aren’t. In order to protect yourself and your family when you go on the Internet to find offers for free goods, there are some things that you should do first to protect yourself from fraud or just plain annoyance.
Some of them do have a minimal cost but if you plan on getting many items for free off the Internet, in the long run the free items that you get and the money that you save will more than make up for the cost of these privacy protections.
So if you really want to protect your private information when you start trying to get free stuff on the Internet, here are some things that you can do to prevent identity theft, junk mail, telemarketing calls, and virus laden emails.
Get a Post Office Box – You can rent a post office box at your local USPS branch or at a mailing store like the UPS store. Depending on where you live, post office boxes range in price from about $7 for a small box to about $15 for a larger box. Using a post office box as your address will cut down dramatically on the amount of junk mail that you get. Using a post office box will also prevent strangers from knowing where you live.
Get a “Dummy” Phone Number – If you don’t have home phone service and use a cell phone for all your calls you definitely don’t want to get telemarketing calls that might eat up your minutes. There are several ways that you can set up a “dummy” phone number to use when filling out online forms so that telemarketers won’t get your real phone number.
If you are using a cell phone provider that allows you to have an extra line at no charge then get an extra phone number to use as a dummy phone number. You don’t need to get a phone for that number because you will never use it; it will just be an active phone number that you can use when filling out online forms.
If you can’t add an extra line for no charge then you can buy a pre-paid cell phone or a pay-as-you-go cell phone. Usually, the phones are cheap, some are under $20, and you just pay for the airtime. You don’t need a lot of minutes because you won’t be using the phone. Just buy enough minutes to keep the phone active.
You can also use a free service like JC Connect, which offers free anonymous phone numbers and voice mail. Using an anonymous phone number will make it easier to avoid telemarketing calls and make it harder for people to steal your identity.
Get an alternate email address – Set up an email account with one of the many free email providers online and use that email address for all of your online free stuff. Using your personal email address could mean getting a lot more spam emails and junk emails. It might even leave your personal email vulnerable to getting a virus or collecting Spyware. So look for a free email service like Gmail or Yahoo that offers spam protection, virus protection, and can help protect your personal email.
Only use your alternate email address when you are filling out offers for free items online and you will be protecting your personal email and your computer.
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