paranoid and reckless

[livejonelle]

i've been carefully trained to be paranoid since i was a kid, and now it keeps me up at night. my mom used to scare me into putting toilet paper on the seats in public washrooms, and THEN hover because 'crabs can jump if they make it past the paper'. ick! i'm always careful, but how much can you protect yourself? my brother had his VISA #

Comments

[mrattis]

Paranoia is a good thing, as long as it doesn't keep you from participating in life. Somethings its great to be paranoid about, and sometimes you have to accept that it happens and you can't control it. The big hitter for visa # theft (as long as you make sure you have a secure connection (look for the icon in the corner ) other wise you're asking for it) is actually the companies. The people that steal them get them from hacked servers, not from peoples computers, regardless of what they try to tell you with the tv ads. As for the SIN (Not sure I know what that is, but I'm guessing its your version of our Social Security number) you guard it. Make sure you only use a secure connection when you give it out, and only if you absolutely have to. Personal identity theft happens usually by people doing their banking and stuff at work, and tossing their stuff in the work trash. Land fills and dumpsters are a id thefts wonder land, because people really don't think about where their un-shredded trash is going