Customer Reviews

The Identity Theft Protection Guide: *Safeguard Your Family *Protect Your Privacy *Recover a Stolen Identity

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book helpful and easy to read. I especially enjoyed the self-test sections that allowed me to recognize where I'm most vulnerable and then concluded with definitive action items to take that are easy to implement. The author does a great job keeping these risks in perspective for you - highlighting things that affect most of us, like direct marketing and using the internet, and informing the reader about things like government surveillance that are important topics but may affect only a few of us. I do not feel more paranoid after reading this book, in fact I feel more knowledgable, more confident that i understand the risks, and therefore less paranoid overall. This book is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about protecting their personal privacy.

This is a good book on identity theft since it specializes on this topic alone. I found the advice very useful and a lot of it made sense. Yet, most people aren't aware of the countermeasures they should take. Many think the risks are overstated.

I also enjoyed "The Digital Umbrella", which supplements this book very well.

This book is well written and extremely relevant. I implemented many of the suggestions immediately to better protect myself. The book is funny and easy to read. Being Internet savvy and an ex-banker, I was surprised how much the book taught me from setting up better passwords to getting rid of those pesky AOL CDs. Highly recommend as a gift too!

When you consider all the ways we're being monitored and our actions tracked these days -- by everyone from the local grocery store to the government -- it's pretty clear that this kind of book is a must-have. It's a survival guide for living in the information age. The author has done a great job of making what could be a scarey and overwhelming topic easy and even fun to read! She's got great stories (I really like the one about kids teasing her about being able to see her epidermis). There are quick and easy self-tests you can take at the end of each chapter to see how much at risk you are. I learned about how identity "damage" is actually more of a threat than identity theft. Well worth the price!

If I had to select one thing that I learnt from this book it would be to buy a shredder. Not just any old shredder but a diamond cut shredder that is capable of shredding credit cards and discs. This is probably the most important thing anyone can do to protect and safeguard one's identity.

In recent years we have become an information society. Not in the sense of an information economy where knowledge and the ability to utilise it enable money to be made but where factual information determines much of what we do. As money becomes indistinguishable from electronic transfers, the citizen's interaction with the world through the highway known as the internet, has led to the creation of virtual worlds and the rapid growth in cybercrime.

The author methodically goes through the uses and abuses of facts and sets out checklists so that we can monitor our information health, warning us of potential risks and lauding our success in minimising potential abuses.

Essentially she acknowledges that we cannot escape ourinformation being used by multiple bodies, government, for profit, and services. Given that acknowledgement she suggests that there are certain precautions and actions that we can take to ensure our informational integrity and thus participate without too much worry that our identities will be stolen which can have serious downside risks.

Most of us have only a limited awareness of the extent to which information about ourselves and our lives exist and can be accessed and by who. This handy little book opens our eyes and our minds to both the inherent risks and possibilities involved and how to live with them.

It goes without saying that I am happy to endorse this book as a primer on identity theft and how to live safely in the information society. We should encourage our teenagers to learn its lessons.

Amanda Welshe's book provides a good discussion of the challenges we face in today's high-tech, information-hungry world. Her book provides food for thought about the way we operate in the marketplace, as well as some very good concrete advice for how to minize your risk of identity theft. She provides advice on how to obtain a credit report, recognize the sources of information gathering, how to deal with surveillance, and how to look out for your children when they are online. The most useful section for me was how to deal with driectmarketers, since my mailboxes, both paper and electronic, are continally stuffed with offers that hold no interest for me. Welsh sheds light on the kinds of infomration the voernment collects about us, why and how it is used. This is a great book, and should be on every adult's bookshelf.

I unfortunately first bought a book by Eric Gertler on this subject and found it impossible to read. Undeterred, I bought this book nect and founf it not only highly informative, but a pleasure to read through. I definitely recommend this book.

Thank you Amanda, for writing such a helpful book! An easy and informative read! Kudos!

I read this over the holidays. Maybe it works for others but this book was too complicated for me. It devotes too much time on reviewing my habits instead of telling me what to do in an easy to follow way.