Learn How to Protect Your Identity and Become “Invisible”
August 6, 2008 – 10:07 am
Identity theft is a huge problem these days, and you’re smart to take action to prevent it from happening to you. Unfortunately most people don’t pay attention until they themselves become a victim, but if you are proactive, you can significantly decrease your chances of be a target.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money either (be leery of the credit card companies who want to charge you monthly fees to identity theft insurance or other costly safeguards). Just pick up a good book on the subject, and educate yourself, and you’ll find that the best safeguards don’t cost any money.
The book, How to Be Invisible: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life
“From cyberspace to crawl spaces, new innovations in information gathering have left the private life of the average person open to scrutiny, and worse, exploitation. In this thoroughly revised update of his immensely popular guide How to Be Invisible, J.J. Luna shows you how to protect yourself from these information predators by securing your vehicle and real estate ownership, your bank accounts, your business dealings, your computer files, your home address, and more.”
As one review at Amazon says, it’s full of “essential privacy advice for the average person.”
Get smart about identity theft and personal security; pick up a copy from the bookstore or order it from your library today:
Tags: Identity Theft, Personal Security, privacy
Here’s a video for all you MacGyver types out there who like to save money and solve all their problems with household items:
Lighting is an important part of home security, since a well-lit yard (including front, back, and side yards) is a great deterrent to burglars. They would rather work in the dark and shadows, so a house that lights up when they approach is a big turn off. They will generally go for easier targets.
As we’ve mentioned before, basic home security is just as important as spending thousands on fancy alarm systems. Make sure you have strong doors and locks for starters. Deadbolts should be on all exterior doors, and if you haven’t had yours changed in a while (and there may be copies of your house keys out there), now may be the time to get new ones.
If you’ve read our article on 
A garage door monitor is a device that simply lets you know if your garage door has been left open. If you’ve found yours up more than once (hey, it’s easy to forget to push the button when you’re herding kids inside while toting bags full of groceries), then his gadget could make sense from a home security standpoint. 
If you have kids and you’re tired of neighbors zipping their cars through your neighborhood (the worst are those people who don’t even live nearby and just cut through your street to avoid lights), this “kid alert” sign can remind drivers to slow down. After all, most folks are just in their own world and not really thinking about their speed. The vibrant yellow sign will catch their eye and remind them that children are at play nearby.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive home security system that you can install yourself, X-10 has quite a few offerings.