Back to Basics: How to Be Safe with your Personal Info!

Thought I would re-post this to make sure you all being safe with your information!

There are a lot of companies who offer Free Stuff in exchange for liking them on facebook, giving them your email address or mailing information.

There are a TON of freebies that I do not post about because the site looks fishy or because the company isn’t reputable enough to not sell your personal information to other companies.  I really do my best to make sure I post real deals from companies that have a “personal information” disclaimer.

However, we will still run into dis-honest companies or phising schemes designed to get your information.  This is why knowing how to be safe with your info is VERY important.

Mailing Address:
You will only need to enter in this information if a free sample is being sent.  This is a necessary piece of information that you will be asked to give.

Phone Number:
Many times there will be a number field that isn’t required to submit for the offer. If it isn’t required, leave it blank.  If it is, you can create a free number that will be linked to an email account.  Anyone calling your Free number will be sent to an online voice messaging system.  And, you can choose to check the voice mails online or ignore any calls you might receive from signing up for free samples.

Email Addresses:
If you would like to get emails from the company in the future, use your real email address.  If you do not, or don’t like all of the email you get from companies- create a Free email account you use just for free offers.  Hotmail, Yahoo!, MSN, Gmail…they all offer free email accounts to use!

Birthday:
I will only enter my real birthday if it is for a HUGE corporation that wants to reward me on my Birthday.  For example, I entered my real birthday on Chain Restaurants to get free food and also on Disney Movie Rewards to get a Free DVD on my sign up anniversary date.  For the rest of the offers, I wouldn’t recommend putting in your real birthday information.

Scams:
Like I said earlier, I try my very hardest to only link you guys to legitimate offers.  But in case you do get a funny phone call or email asking for personal sign in information, bank information or social security information…do not give that out.  It may seem like an obvious thing.  But, many people give that information out without even thinking.

Please be carefuly with other deal sites you visit as well. Not all screen the offers they post.  So you could be giving your information to a “fake” offer and start receiving a lot of junk email. Just be smart and use your intuition.  If it seems “off”, then it probably is!