Reader Question - Onlne sites that share info w/collectors

Q: Which online sites are notorious for sharing my personal info with databases used for debt collection?

A: First of all - ALL of them can be used. The most evil and notorious?

• REUNION.COM
• CLASSMATES.COM
• Any reunion type sites! Stay away!
  

Anything reunion oriented. Those feed directly to Intellius and U.S. Search etc. They feed to all attorney databases. Why they like those? Duh! Your name, age, where you went to school, who your friends are is all there, provided by you. What a better way to nab you than have you incriminate yourself and broadcast to the world who you are and where you are, where you work.

DO NOT sign up for those sites and if you did, then use a diversion tactic and slowly post false info that you've moved to another state, changed jobs...then delete your account and disappear.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter - all places where you do not want to reveal name or location. Don't text from a phone app and show latitude longitude either. That's stupid. Be careful what you share on TwitPic or other sites. Host photos on your own privately registered site. Make a password protect for friends and name your photos a bunch of jumbled numbers and letters so Google Images doesn't show them to anyone who types in your name.

If you're concerned about privacy, then start creating false info about you on reunion type sites and eventually fade from the sites altogether.

Delete your MySpace. Don't put your age on MySpace, put 100 or something so you can't be tracked. Learn to use the "Hide" info codes. The new MySpace format allows for more private pages, but MySpace is the personals equivalent to Craigslist. It attracts a wide audience and is the first stop of any stalker trying to find you.

Use a different email address for all social neworking sites that is totally different than any emails you give your friends or anyone else. This way no one can type your email address into social sites and locate your page.

I'll write more tips on this later, but it answers a very important and intelligent question from our reader. This reader is "thinking"! Let's all be more like that, and think about how sites we think are safe, are making money selling our info to collectors, to stalkers and to spammers.

Test us. Email your privacy questions.

Click HERE to email The Privacy Club your questions. We'll answer them here for all our readers (never sharing your name of course). You will not be placed on any email list, nor will we ever sell your info or spam you.

Ask questions on internet privacy, surfing, email, email tracking, hacking, cleaning computer spyware, wipe your hard drive, surf anonymously.

Life questions, such as how to, shall we say, "avoid" child support collection while you're out of work or broke, how to set up your own private corporation that collectors can't find in a database, protect your assets from liens, protect wages from garnishment. Evading the unlawful debt collectors harassing you and your family. Becoming invisible.

We're compiling a series of booklets on each subject which we are striving to make affordable to all. The economy is tight, collectors are breaking laws, and committing blatant fraud. Privacy is becoming a lost right here in our own country.

Our stance isn't from any conspiracy theory or paranoia, it's from watching our clients suffer and wait until things are out of control. They are realizing now, that it isn't so crazy to be pro-active. A little bit of healthy paranoia may often save you thousands of dollars. We don't condone breaking major laws, or evading taxes etc. in fact you can have a fully legal and law abiding LLC or Corporation right here in the states and still be private. You can start your own 401K, write off your medical costs, and write off things legally that you never thought about. Imagine getting money back from the IRS? Imagine even if you didn't get money back, that you didn't owe anything? Think tax breaks are just for the big guys? Nope. The IRS and our government wants businesses to succeed now more than ever! More on that in other posts.

So ask your questions and we'll post answers here. We can email back to you personally as well. Thanks for all the really kind emails we've received on our site! Books and e-books are in the works.

Want to know what I can find out about you?

Are you on Twitter, Facebook, My Space, Reunion, Classmates? If so then take a look at what I can get on you! I can sign up, become a friend of yours, stalk you, your friends, it's endless. Your bosses can snoop on you and you've just basically put a target on your back.

This post CLICK HERE by PC World is very good advice, however the best advice for privacy is to stay OFF the grid, off the social networking sites. Your real friends are people you see in real life and have emails to so that you can send messages and pics in private. What's the purpose of using your real name and posting your life and job online anyhow? Brownie points? To show off to past classmates "how well you're doing". To me, it seems arrogant to say the least. If you're not a celebrity getting paid big bucks to have your privacy violated then why on earth are you violating yourself? Think about that for a minute.

Common sense says don't post drunken photos, naked photos, photos of yourself doing drugs etc. But for heaven's sake you're posting your spouse's pics, your kids, your friends. Do they have a say in what you're posting? Do you realize it would take me a few minutes to locate you down to your front door with the info you post? So please people, realize that it isn't smart or necessary to post your life online. Think your info is gone when you delete it? Think again my friend. Info is cached. Go look up something on Google. Clicking main link may come up empty, but look below at the button that says CACHED underneath the site's description. Bingo, there's the old site, pictures and all. Are you using photobucket for images? For that matter any free service? They can be copied by anyone, they can be photoshopped and re-posted to ruin your reputation.

A woman browsing Craigslist saw a photo of her son being used in an adoption scam. Imagine her horror! She apparently posted a pic of her son on a social networking site and exploited the poor child unknowingly.

Kidnappers. Need I mention that if a criminal learns who your local friends are, your best friend, he/she can approach your child and name-drop to gain their trust?

Do your social networking under a pseudonym and do not post your real name anywhere.

"But how will people find me" you ask. My answer: Who the hell online really needs to find you that bad? Are you seeking fame? What is it that you want really? Again, your friends are people you know and email. Send them your pictures in private. Refrain from even posting names of pets, because trust me, I've located more people through veterinary records and animal control. Don't post your real name anywhere, don't use your real address, if you can, don't even post your city. It's all about how much you're willing to give up in the name of privacy.

Scary thing is that it isn't only me who can locate you, anyone with a few bucks to spare can pay for a search service and locate you if you're easy to find. I've set up decoy accounts and caught stalkers, and you'd be surprised that often stalkers are often people you actually know. That acquaintance or family member who is all too sweet when they see you in person. Why? Because they're feeling guilty for stalking. You can put trackers on many social networking sites now, that will enable you to see who visits your site and for how long. One of my clients had an aquaintance hit his site over 60 times in an hour. This is more than one page reload per minute. Why? Who cares why, the fact is that they did it in the first place.

So go now and change the details in your social sites. Pick a handle, don't use your name. Put fictitious info in the first name, last name and address fields. Don't put your location or change it to something far away. Never put your real birthdate. More later... in the mean time, clean up your cyber trail.