So happy for you that there was not mold behind the tile!!! My hubby’s other business is remodeling. Dealing with the mold, especially black mold is UGLY!

Now pack that rolling cart….you only have 2 more days!

Back in 1990 (before identity fraud was as well-known), my dad lost his driver’s license, which at the time used one’s SSN as the ID number. My mom discovered a year or so later that someone had gotten their own ID with his info (and their picture) and BOUGHT A TRUCK with a car loan in his name/with his SSN. The thief did make payments on the truck until he totaled it, at which point he stopped and my dad was tracked down by the bank (for payment) after the loan was in default. It took my poor mother three years to get it off of all three credit reports – and the only reason they got it out of his name and proved it was fraud was because my dad was lucky enough to have been on a two-week trip outside of the country when the truck was purchased, with my grandfather, who was anal enough to have kept everyone’s airline ticket stubs. Otherwise they’d have been SOL.

Oh. And they were still getting unpaid parking tickets for that truck (dated 1990) from another state as of 2004. Her blood pressure spiked so much at reminders of the ordeal that she just paid them to make it go away.

So my mom’s not exactly thrilled that Medicare uses SSNs on the Medicare ID card. My dad’s still prone to losing things (I discovered he’d lost his driver’s license again just last week, though once alerted he was eventually able to find it. And our state let you stop listing your SSN number a long time ago, so it wasn’t a big deal.)

So yeah. Sign the back of your credit and debit cards, don’t use your debit card anywhere it leaves your sight (like at restaurants – fraud refunds are easy-peasy on credit cards, but once the money’s out of your checking account it can take a 30-90 days to be restored), don’t use public/un-encrypted wifi for anything remotely sensitive, and like you said, don’t click links.

Browser add-ons like NoScript can also protect you from clickjacking or legit sites that have been hacked or contain a banner add laced with malware.

Back in 1990 (before identity fraud was as well-known), my dad lost his driver’s license, which at the time used one’s SSN as the ID number. My mom discovered a year or so later that someone had gotten their own ID with his info (and their picture) and BOUGHT A TRUCK with a car loan in his name/with his SSN. The thief did make payments on the truck until he totaled it, at which point he stopped and my dad was tracked down by the bank (for payment) after the loan was in default. It took my poor mother three years to get it off of all three credit reports – and the only reason they got it out of his name and proved it was fraud was because my dad was lucky enough to have been on a two-week trip outside of the country when the truck was purchased, with my grandfather, who was anal enough to have kept everyone’s airline ticket stubs. Otherwise they’d have been SOL.

Oh. And they were still getting unpaid parking tickets for that truck (dated 1990) from another state as of 2004. Her blood pressure spiked so much at reminders of the ordeal that she just paid them to make it go away.

So my mom’s not exactly thrilled that Medicare uses SSNs on the Medicare ID card. My dad’s still prone to losing things (I discovered he’d lost his driver’s license again just last week, though once alerted he was eventually able to find it. And our state let you stop listing your SSN number a long time ago, so it wasn’t a big deal.)

So yeah. Sign the back of your credit and debit cards, don’t use your debit card anywhere it leaves your sight (like at restaurants – fraud refunds are easy-peasy on credit cards, but once the money’s out of your checking account it can take a 30-90 days to be restored), don’t use public/un-encrypted wifi for anything remotely sensitive, and like you said, don’t click links.

Browser add-ons like NoScript can also protect you from clickjacking or legit sites that have been hacked or contain a banner add laced with malware.