How Identity Theft OccursWritten by John Mussi
In course of a busy day, you may write a cheque at grocery shop, charge theatre tickets, rent a car, post your tax returns, change service providers for your cell phone, or apply for a credit card. Chances are you don't give these everyday transactions a second thought. But an identity thief does. Identity theft is a serious crime. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years and thousands of dollars cleaning up mess thieves have made of a good name and credit record. In meantime, victims of identity theft may lose job opportunities, be refused loans for housing or cars, and even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit. Despite your best efforts to manage flow of your personal information or to keep it to yourself, skilled identity thieves may use a variety of methods to gain access to your data. How identity thieves get your personal information: •They may get information from businesses or other institutions by: ostealing records or information while they're on job obribing an employee who has access to these records ohacking these records oconning information out of employees •They may steal your mail, including bank and credit card statements, credit card offers, new cheque books or tax information. •They may rummage through your rubbish bins, rubbish bins of businesses, or even public rubbish dumps. •They may steal your credit or debit card numbers by capturing information in a data storage device in a practice known as "skimming." They may swipe your card for an actual purchase, or attach device to an ATM machine where you may enter or swipe your card.
| | My Cup Runneth Over. . .But I’m Still ThirstyWritten by Cheryl Johnson
Most of us, especially those of us who have debtor's disease (if you have it you know what it is!), have commented or at least thought, "If I could just win lottery, or sweepstakes, everything would be better." Unfortunately, even if that big dream did come true things probably would get worse instead of better. It's a strange phenomenon. It seems more money you have, more you need. It makes perfect sense. Given more money, most people would increase their standard of living. My question is, "If you haven't properly managed money you have now, how do you expect that you'll be able to properly manage two, three, four, five or hundreds of thousands times more money?" A good question, huh? Food for thought. Maybe you need to start learning to properly manage what you have now while it's on a much smaller scale. Then you'll be prepared when that big lottery win, or sweepstakes, comes through! Now you may think this is a crazy, nonsense theory. Surely a million is enough for anyone to be on easy street! I’m sure you have at some time heard rumor about people who fall into great wealth by some means or another, and just a short time later are back where they started or in even worse financial condition. Many of these instances end in bankruptcy. Not convinced? Let me tell you about my own, smaller scale, experience with this strange phenomenon. Once upon a time, I was a single parent raising four children on an income of just under $20,000 per year. My children did not do without, and while I did begin my journey into debtors demise during this time, I had everything under control. Or so I thought. By my understanding now, I certainly was not managing my money well. I was not properly preparing for variable expenses or emergency expenses that were sure to arise. Thank goodness for a great family infrastructure that gave help and support when needed! My monthly payments were well within my income, including debt payments. I monitored my debt to be sure I maintained a comfortable debt to income ratio. I felt that I had proper perspective on my finances. It was not until household income increased due to marriage that I somehow lost that perspective and my real problems began. I blame a good deal of this accelerating financial ruin to "over confidence." This "over confidence" lead to an arrogant disregard of proper money management. Looking back, you know hind sight is 20/20, if I knew then what I know now, I would be way ahead of game! Since my new husband earned more than twice income I had, I quit work to become a stay at home mom. I've been working since I was fourteen years old (and I'm no spring chicken now) so when he expressed desire for me to stay at home with kids, I jumped on it! But, this was not a contributing factor to my financial demise. It was mindset I acquired when household income increased.
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