A little explanation and then I'll tell you how to do this. I recently got an email from Ancestry.com indicating they had found new info on someone on my tree. Imagine my horror when that info (all in the same document) included not only my husbands date of birth BUT also his mothers maiden name! How often have YOU been asked that very info to verify your identity for Credit Cards and other financial info???? How many times have you lost a CC, or your wallet, or even left it somewhere? Some CC scams are done at cash registers by clerks etc on the take...they quietly steal your CC info while you are chatting away making your transaction...it happens... How many bank computers have been compromised by hackers? They do not alert you to this BTW...you only occasionally hear about it in the evening news...financial institutions, stores etc are hacked all the time and they never let the customers know unless a problem arises... I did a lot of searching and found my birth date listed in several places also...as well as previous marriages... I also found a history of almost ALL of our past addresses for the last 20 years. THIS info is important to keep confidential as when doing a wire transfer a few years ago, of a very large sum of money, I was put through a series of questions asked by an independent company who used such info to verify you were who you said you were...many financial institutions are using that type of info these days for certain transactions...E-trade is the one who used it in my case...so having a list of your previous addresses can be quite helpful to a thief... Now this info IS public info, but in the past the crooks had to go to a lot of trouble to find it...NOW with a little looking an ancestry they can find it with a few clicks... Thankfully not all states are releasing that info so indiscriminately, but if you have lived in one of the states that is --and there are many--you are at higher risk for Identity Theft, or if you have a CC stolen or # compromised, crooks can find out a lot about you that way. I don't know what other nefarious ways this info can be used for, but I am sure crooks do. IF you find public info on ancestry.com, about you, that you don't want there, you CAN have it removed. Send an email to _customersolutions@ancestry.com_ (mailto:customersolutions@ancestry.com) and they will tell you the steps to do so... Ancestry will need the specific URL's to delete the info, so when you find something you want OUT of ancestry's records, save the URL to keep you from having to look for it again...but DON'T send that with your first email as there are other things they need you to do... send the complaint first, then be ready with your URL's to send them to a specific person, after they tell you the rest of the steps. I tried to get them to reconsider having this info so easily available but of course they would not reconsider their policy...if it is public info, no matter how potentially damaging, ancestry is going to put it out there for all the world to see...and it really falls down to the states who are releasing this info to them... Those of you who do not have ancestry accts, it might be worthwhile to get a trial acct and check out what info they have on you...I had to search in a lot of ways to find it all, so if you are concerned, time to get busy and find it all...use the old and new search methods as some things showed up on one, but not the other. I still have had trouble finding one piece of info I thought I saw the other day, even though I searched every way from Sunday---so save the URL's right when you find them! If you think I am an alarmist, that is fine...but if you are as concerned about identity theft as I am, then you may want to take these steps. IF your identity is stolen it can cost you tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees just to clear your name and your credit report, even if the credit card companies etc expunge the charges thieves make. Identity theft is serious stuff and very expensive to fix. I hope this help some of you out there, who do care about this info being so easily accessible. J

It also begins with you (not you specifically J). Share your tree with someone who is related, who has no respect for your privacy or is just too stupid to realize the problem and they could easily slap your information up on any old webpage. People have done that, taken information I gave them and put it up on the internet. Never giving a thought to why I didn't put it up there myself. I always knew enough not to give the current living generation, but what if I had? I had someone take my grandparents photos and incorporate it into their tree and they weren't even related! Nothing is sacred you have to be very careful. I've stopped sharing because I've been burned by someone's stupidity and thats a shame. Liz On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 4:13 PM, <Wrdsrus@aol.com> wrote: > A little explanation and then I'll tell you how to do this. > > I recently got an email from Ancestry.com indicating they had found new > info on someone on my tree. Imagine my horror when that info (all in the > same document) included not only my husbands date of birth BUT also his > mothers > maiden name! > > How often have YOU been asked that very info to verify your identity for > Credit Cards and other financial info???? How many times have you lost a > CC, or your wallet, or even left it somewhere? Some CC scams are done at > cash registers by clerks etc on the take...they quietly steal your CC info > while you are chatting away making your transaction...it happens... > > How many bank computers have been compromised by hackers? They do not > alert you to this BTW...you only occasionally hear about it in the evening > news...financial institutions, stores etc are hacked all the time and they > never let the customers know unless a problem arises... > > I did a lot of searching and found my birth date listed in several places > also...as well as previous marriages... > > I also found a history of almost ALL of our past addresses for the last 20 > years. > > THIS info is important to keep confidential as when doing a wire transfer a > few years ago, of a very large sum of money, I was put through a series of > questions asked by an independent company who used such info to verify you > were who you said you were...many financial institutions are using that > type of info these days for certain transactions...E-trade is the one who > used it in my case...so having a list of your previous addresses can be > quite > helpful to a thief... > > Now this info IS public info, but in the past the crooks had to go to a lot > of trouble to find it...NOW with a little looking an ancestry they can > find it with a few clicks... > > Thankfully not all states are releasing that info so indiscriminately, but > if you have lived in one of the states that is --and there are many--you > are at higher risk for Identity Theft, or if you have a CC stolen or # > compromised, crooks can find out a lot about you that way. I don't know > what > other nefarious ways this info can be used for, but I am sure crooks do. > > IF you find public info on ancestry.com, about you, that you don't want > there, you CAN have it removed. > > Send an email to _customersolutions@ancestry.com_ > (mailto:customersolutions@ancestry.com) and they will tell you the steps > to do so... > > Ancestry will need the specific URL's to delete the info, so when you find > something you want OUT of ancestry's records, save the URL to keep you from > having to look for it again...but DON'T send that with your first email as > there are other things they need you to do... > > send the complaint first, then be ready with your URL's to send them to a > specific person, after they tell you the rest of the steps. > > I tried to get them to reconsider having this info so easily available but > of course they would not reconsider their policy...if it is public info, no > matter how potentially damaging, ancestry is going to put it out there for > all the world to see...and it really falls down to the states who are > releasing this info to them... > > Those of you who do not have ancestry accts, it might be worthwhile to get > a trial acct and check out what info they have on you...I had to search in > a lot of ways to find it all, so if you are concerned, time to get busy > and > find it all...use the old and new search methods as some things showed up > on one, but not the other. > > I still have had trouble finding one piece of info I thought I saw the > other day, even though I searched every way from Sunday---so save the > URL's > right when you find them! > > If you think I am an alarmist, that is fine...but if you are as concerned > about identity theft as I am, then you may want to take these steps. > > IF your identity is stolen it can cost you tens of thousands of dollars in > legal fees just to clear your name and your credit report, even if the > credit card companies etc expunge the charges thieves make. Identity > theft is > serious stuff and very expensive to fix. > > I hope this help some of you out there, who do care about this info being > so easily accessible. > > J > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYC-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >