Re: [privacy] A good Web site to check out

[Chris Buechler <funsec () chrisbuechler com>]

Richard M. Smith wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just found out about a Web site in the Boston Globe which makes it easy to
> opt-out of credit card offers:
>
>    https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t
>
> One of the tricks that identity thieves use is to steal pre-approved credit
> card offers from the mail and apply for a credit card in the victim's name.
> Opting out of credit card offers is a good way to guard against this kind of
> ID theft.
>   

It actually works too...mostly. I signed myself and my wife up about 6 
months ago, it says it may take something like 1-2 months to take 
effect, and the amount of offers we get now has substantially decreased. 
It hasn't completely eliminated them though, we're obviously on some 
other list that still gets us a few of them. But it went from ~20 on an 
average week, to a couple a month. My shredder is glad for the reduced 
work load.

It's definitely worth signing up for.

It's only good for 5 years if you do it online, or you can fill out a 
form off their site and snail mail it to permanently opt out. That's 
pretty ridiculous (they're making money off their database, they want it 
to be inconvenient to opt out permanently).

cheers,
-Chris

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