The Facebook Generation Says “I do” : Steps You Can Take to Reduce the Risk of Identity Theft for You and Your New Family

By Andre’ Andropolis

You’re somewhere in your 20s or early 30s. You got hooked on Facebook when you were in college or perhaps even in high school, and you still go on it frequently. Heck, you may still have a Myspace profile lingering out there in cyberspace.

But you’re married now, and perhaps even raising a family.

With your spouse and each child, the risks of identity theft entering your life, whether it affects your own identity or that of someone you love, dramatically increases. Fortunately, there are some easy steps you can take right now to reduce your risk of identity theft. In no particular order, they are:

• Don’t list your full birth date on your social media profiles
• Don’t list your home address on your social media profiles
• Use caution when requesting/adding or confirming friendships or connections on your social media profiles
• Change your account passwords frequently, using a nice variety of numbers, capital and lowercase letters, and any symbols you’re allowed to use
• Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts
• Check your privacy settings on your social media profiles and adjust them accordingly if necessary
• Any profiles out there you no longer really use? Clean up unnecessary clutter you have online by deleting them
• If you have children, use caution in what you share on your social media profiles about them

To briefly address the last point, let’s be realistic here. It can be very tough for parents to not want to share information about their children across their various social networks. And it clearly shows. All across the Internet, photos, birthdates, vitals at birth, the name of the hospital, and other information about their children are freely shared by doting parents. But while it’s tough to resist that urge to share with others information about the greatest, most meaningful, and beautiful joy in your life, you have to try. You have to use caution. All it takes, unfortunately, is for someone who knows what they’re doing, to take a few of the facts that you have shared about your children online, and run with them. Before you know it, you’re experiencing identity theft. And identity theft can be a long, painful road to go down, one that can drain you emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially as you fight to clear your name, or that of your spouse or child.

Fortunately, there are easy strategies that you can implement immediately to protect yourself and those you love by reducing the risks of identity theft.

The author is an identity theft expert and an independent associate with LegalShield. Since 1972, LegalShield has been providing families, employees and small businesses with affordable access to quality legal services and the Identity Theft Shield. The Company provides legal service benefits through a network of independent law firms across the U.S. and Canada. LegalShield is owned by a New York-based private equity group. He can be reached at 414-218-1495 or at andrej.legalshield.com .

How Not to Deal with Your Web Designer

Once I heard about this, I just had to write about it as a way to show you how NOT to deal with your Web designer.

Less than a year ago, we designed a Web site for a Milwaukee-area contractor. We specified to him that we would offer complimentary minor revisions and updates to the site within a year of it first being published live on the Internet.  Any revisions and updates of a larger scale, we told him, could be negotiated at a very attractive discount.

He raved about the design and our service.

And then, some months back, unbeknownst to us, he went to another Web designer to have his site entirely redesigned. We were puzzled by this, as he told us everything looked great, he still had revisions and updates coming to him if he needed them, and he had no problem paying us.

It turns out that he never paid the other Web designer, and the site was taken down a short time ago.

I met with the other Web designer today, and she told me that she, too, was puzzled as to why he would want a full redesign on a site that was still a ways away from being one year old.

We don't blame her for taking the site down. It's entirely out of our hands now. Now, he has to pay someone else (and rightfully so) in order to get his site back online.

If he had just contacted us with his questions, concerns, ideas, etc., his site would still be online and he most likely wouldn't have had to pay anything extra for making adjustments to his site.

Please let this be a valuable lesson for how to work with, and how to communicate with, your Web designer. Simple communication, honesty, and a collaborative spirit can save you time, headaches, and potentially boatloads of money.

As an additional resource, read my recent post, How Not to Promote Your Business on Facebook.

To Your Success, 

--Aaron Robertson, president, Intrepid Innovations Inc.

How Not to Promote Your Business on Facebook

Just a few minutes ago, I was on Facebook and received an unsolicited chat message from a realtor. He didn't introduce himself or show any interest in wanting to get to know me as a fellow business professional or even just as a fellow human being for that matter. All his chat message said was:

"hey I am a realtor so if you know anyone looking to buy or sell a home keep me in mind [phone number and Web site address removed by me]"

I've been getting a lot of unsolicited crap lately, so I finally let out some of the frustration and anger that had been building up in me for a while by sending him this reply:

"sure, will do! I don't know you or anything about you, but I'm glad to go out on a whim and risk my reputation on an unsolicited Facebook chat message!"

And then I blocked him. I just thought this was so unprofessional. It's perfectly fine for him to mention he's a realtor and offer me his contact info AFTER he at least introduces himself to me and offers me an opportunity to introduce myself and share with him what I do. You know, like a regular-flowing conversation.

If he approached me with simple courtesy and allowed me to get to learn more about him and his business, and vice-versa, maybe I would have seriously kept him in mind when it came to helping one of my trusted contacts. He missed this opportunity for good.

--Aaron Robertson, president, Intrepid Innovations Inc.