Cyber Fraud & Identity Theft Prevention

There are many people out there that have DSL or cable connections that don't have proper firewalls or up to date antivirus programs in place. Too many think it just came with computer. This can create a breach and your privacy violated. The General Accounting Office now puts identity theft at 750,000 victims a year. Victims spend an average of 175 painstaking hours to undo damage.

There are things you can do to protect yourself especially regarding your computer. First and foremost, don't store your personal information on your computer. Someone harvesting that kind of information can literally go through thousands of computers in hour you spend watching your favorite television program. Virus' can infect your system and relay that information in alot less time. Make sure your firewalls and anit-virus software is up to date. If you don't have them - get them. You don't have to be most tech savy person to do it either. For average user, you can find security information, news and products presented in plain language at quantum-links.com http://www.quantum-links.com to keep yourself and your computer running current and up to date. Beware people who come asking for your personal information. This is becoming commonly known as PHISH. Services you already have do not email you asking for you to resubmit your information. PayPal had some of it's customers caught in this net recently and had to issue an email telling them not to respond. Instead of replying with your information, email them back asking for a telephone number by which to contact them directly. It is doubtful that they will respond with one. If they do, you can check out number in a number of ways to make sure it's for real. One way is to use reverse listings available on many search engines. My favorite is http://www.refdesk.com>.

The truth about 1-900 numbers

900 numbers have been heavily advertised over last few years as a great way to make money. Everybody from Dionne Warwick to Don Lapre are getting in on pay per call action In theory (theory mind you) they are a great way for people to make money. You start up a simple phone line and people start calling by thousands (I sound like someone I know on TV). When numbers became popular a few years ago, sex and adult lines were a large part of business. Psychic lines are now rage. There are some psychic lines that are generating millions of dollars in calls per month (Although Dionne's did go bankrupt, didn't psychics warn her?) but every single one of these lines has huge advertising budgets and people renting out lines are not going to advertise a thing, only rent you lines. There are many company's that rent 900 numbers if you would like to get one. When company's first started renting lines 10 years ago, person renting would only get a small percentage of each call, maybe 10% to 20%. But now that so many company's are renting lines (increased competition), call per-minute amount you get is much more. You can literally find hundreds of different company's in back of business magazines that will sell you consulting and 900 lines. 976 numbers were first toll lines that came out. The problem was that they were local only and didn't have that many features. Large advertisers wanted one number they could advertise all over US and get calls for, not just one small local area. 900 number's solved that problem.