Ray This came my way and I know you have a home page. It might have some thought provoking ideas in it for you. I am off to Adelaide again tomorrow afternoon. It is a long weekend here. Back Monday. The weather has been brilliant the last few days. We had 19 yesterday. Considering winter has started it is great. No doubt it will make up for it soon. HAd a front end alignment yesterday. Whoever did the job before stuffed it up. The front tyres were scrubbing. One had developed a couple of noisy flat spots. Apart from that it seems OK. Getting 6 kilometers per litre on LPG around town at the moment which is good. Must go am arguing with the neighbour behind about new fences. Bye John Joe & Laura Schmidt wrote: > Hi, This came over the DeepSouth mail list and I thought it was very > important to pass on. We, that use the mail lists, need also to remember to > never pass on living individual's dates in the mail we send to a list! This > article is about websites, but the same applies here. > *********************************** > > Hi to all, > I received this the other day and believe it is CRITICAL that everyone > involved in genealogy read this!! Just in case there may be someone who had > not thought of this angle before. > Remember: 'AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE'. > Here is the article from the May issue of US NEWS & WORLD > REPORT.................... > I hope it helps someone. Love, KAREN > **************************************************************************** > ** > ************ > > This article from the US News & World Report was posted on the > Cumberland River Region. It makes some very interesting points and > is worth passing around. > > U.S. News and World Report > > News You Can Use 5/11/98 > > ON MONEY > > BY MARGARET MANNIX > > Home-page snoops > > Does your family have a home page on the Internet? If so, you might want to > reconsider how much personal information you post online. Con artists who > steal others' identities, get credit in their names, then leave innocent > people with a mountain of debt to fight and ruined credit to clean up are > discovering the charms of the Net. > > Old-fashioned techniques like wading through Dumpsters for discarded > credit-card receipts take time. These days, a savvy thief can hack into an > Internet service provider's subscriber list and lift credit-card numbers by > the thousands. Databases full of sensitive information have been > inadvertently left open in cyberspace. And some online outfits peddle > sensitive information without regard to privacy, despite Federal Trade > Commission scrutiny last year that encouraged many to limit how they sell > services like looking up Social Security numbers. > > Meanwhile, thousands of netizens are unknowingly making it easier for > thieves to steal their identities by posting individual home pages, family > genealogies, and résumés. Sure, there's no harm in posting photographs of > Morris or Fido. And only the foolish post a Social Security number on a Web > site. But many pages are packed with the sort of details identity thieves > crave: full names, birth dates, birthplaces, addresses, occupations, > degrees, phone numbers. With the click of a mouse, a thief has a personal > dossier at his fingertips. > > Think about it. A name, birth date, and birthplace will get you a birth > certificate, and a driver's license is not far behind. "The driver's > license, unfortunately, has become a de facto ID," says Beth Givens, > director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. It's the key to > all sorts of financial services, and it propels a thief closer to the magic > number: the Social Security number. > > Mom's maiden name. Some family tree tracers place details like a mother's > maiden name online. That's often a common password for credit cards and bank > accounts. Revealing such personal details, says Ed Howard, executive > director of the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles, is > "privacy suicide." > > As Howard points out, the Internet isn't a toy. Your home page may have > hooked you up with a long-lost friend or relative, but it can also put you > at risk. Identity-theft victims suffer the aftermath of the criminal's > spending sprees for years in the form of calls from collection agencies, > ruined credit, even mistaken arrest. > > While the Internet is a wonderful tool for genealogists (it has > revolutionized family research), think again before jeopardizing the privacy > of your relatives by putting intimate details up on the Web. "If a family > member is going to put up the genealogy, I think they should notify all the > living members of that family tree," says Givens--who would prefer her > family tree in book form. > > You'll never have complete control over your personal information, so you'll > never be immune to fraud. But why make it easy for someone to impersonate > you? If you wouldn't post your background on your local grocery store's > bulletin board, don't put it on the Internet. "It's the world's bulletin > board," says Carole Lane, author of Naked in Cyberspace: How to Find > Personal Information Online (Pemberton Press, 1997, $29.95). And con artists > are checking it out. > > Take a bite out of credit crimes > Tip: Identity thieves like to rifle through mailboxes for preapproved credit > card and loan solicitations, fill them out, and start using other people's > credit. A 1997 amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (the law that > governs credit bureaus) required credit bureaus to establish toll-free "opt > out" lines that consumers can call to remove their names from those mailing > lists. To keep your mailbox free of such identity thief temptations, call > any of the three largest credit bureaus: > > Equifax > (800) 556-4711 > > Experian > (800) 353-0809 > > Trans Union > (800) 680-7293 > > ==== FIANNA Mailing List ==== > Visit both these pages > Fianna favorite sites > http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/ ***Award Winner***Thank You Chirho! > http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/4404/ > Please turn off your Stationery, Backrounds & HTML! > Messages to list in plain text only!