Baseball coach listed as a sex offender

Posted by Robert Siciliano on July 29th, 2010

In Ostego, Michigan a local summer baseball league coach was removed from his position Friday after school officials found out he was listed on the Michigan State Sex Offender Registry.

He was coaching for a week when an aware parent notified the school that the coach was a sex offender from 1996. As a parent, you should notify school officials if you are aware of these issues. You can do a search on “sex offender registry” to locate the appropriate resource in your area, and also check out Neighborhood Watch.

That the parent had to tell the school shows a flaw in the school's system of effectively vetting individuals who will work with children. The school district went on to say that while they screen volunteers in the hundreds of background checks they do, this individual's may have been overlooked. What is also a possibility is the coach lied on his application which skewed the results.

Officials point to the sex offender putting his name alongside his father’s name on the application, as his father may have had some ties to the league. This may have been done to confuse the background check process as well.

If you are a sex offender, and you have been prosecuted for something you did to a kid, what the heck could possibly be your motivation to want to work alongside kids, and possibly be discovered? There’s no way to rationalize irrational behavior. I think these kids and their parents dodged a bullet.

That parent who brought to to the attention of the district is a hero.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal Security Expert and Adviser to Intelius.com. For more information see Intelius at Sex Offender Check to reduce your chances of encountering a bad guy. (Disclosures) To help protect your kids when they're online, you can install and use parental control software. Check out NextAdvisor's parental control software reviews to see which one will work best for you.

171 Million Facebook profiles available for download. One could be yours

Posted by kent on July 29th, 2010

Security enthusiast Ron Bowes has harvested 171 million Facebook profiles, compiled the data, and made it available for download via bit torrent. Any Facebook news makes a big splash. I heard it on the BBC last night. My first thought was that it was a Facebook security hack, then I realized that all he did was use the service. In a very real sense, Bowes hasn't done anything you or I could do. He looked up publicly viewable Facebook profiles. Only he used a script to do it, so he was able to look up the data on a larger scale. And yes, he put it together in a file.

Bowes intention is the same as those behind sites such as openbook or Please Rob Me, to show how much personal data we expose, and how easy social networking sites make it. Bowes wants you to worry because he believes it's for your own good. And we agree.

We've blogged many times about the dangers of putting too much personal data out there. The data that Bowes assembled includes anything that users have made public—or put another way: failed to make private. Birthday, high school, hometown, names of parents, children and spouses, email addresses, phone numbers, vacation plans, and shameful Farmville addictions may all be harvested. Enough of the right data, used just the right way, can be used for identity theft.

Want to know how much of your data may have been vulnerable?

1. Log in to Facebook, choose "Privacy Settings" under the account tab in the upper right corner.
2. Click "view settings" under Basic Directory Information
3. Select "Preview my profile." You'll see the data other people can see, if they're logged into Facebook (there's an additional preview for how you'll appear to those outside of Facebook under Choose Your Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites > Public Search)

Was your data captured? Possibly. PC World estimates that 1/3 of Facebook profiles were scooped up. To find out how to lock down your Facebook privacy settings, check out our guide to Facebook privacy settings. To help monitor your personal information and protect your identity online, consider investing in identity theft protection.

What does FICO mean?

Posted by tasha on July 27th, 2010

Q:  What does FICO mean?

A: FICO is the brand name of a credit score calculation created by Fair Issac & Co way back in 1956. A "FICO score" indicates that a credit score has been calculated using the (top secret) mathematical formula Fair Issac developed. Your FICO score is used by lenders as one of several factors in determining how big of a credit risk you are.  The formula takes 5 different factors into consideration:, as indicated below:

FICO scores are the credit scores most widely used by lenders to determine your credit worthiness, although there are definitely different types of credit scores out there.  An important point to remember is that any credit score is based on your credit report, and you have 3 different credit reports, so you have 3 different credit scores.  We always recommend keeping a close on your credit reports with one of our top rated 3-bureau credit monitoring services.

Oversharing: It's nothing new

Posted by kent on July 27th, 2010

The phenomenon of oversharing—"to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval"—is not a new thing at all. Sure, the word was added Webster's dictionary in 2008, but as our recent research into genealogy websites proved, people have been doing it for a while. The only difference, really, is how they're doing it. Today it's on Facebook, but in 1938, it was in the newspaper.

We discovered this while testing Footnote.com, a site that gives its members access to millions of historical documents including newspapers, comic strips, census records, military registries, crew manifests, and so much more. The Social Activities Page of the May 12th, 1938 edition of the Golden Dale Sentinel provides us with the following tidbits, many of which would not seem terribly out-of-place on Facebook or Twitter:

Mr. and Mrs. M. E. Larsen shopped in Yakima, Wednesday of last week

Mr. and Mrs. Carl Nygaard and Arnold were dinner guests of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Lasley, Sunday.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hooker spent from Saturday to Wednesday visiting their daughter Mrs. Raymond Naught and family in their new home near Omak, Wash.

The little son of Mr. and Mrs. Nute Bromley, who was injured by his older brother on the head with an axe Friday of last week, is not as seriously injured as at first believed. He is able to be up and playing.

So it seems that people, at least in the last two centuries, have had a desire to share the most quotidian and personal details of their lives with strangers. Facebook and Twitter haven't changed that. All that's changed is that people do it themselves, with more frequency, and without an editor.

Of course this is just one of the cool things we discovered in our exploration of the past with our online genealogy reviews. To see how all the services stacked up, check out our genealogy reviews and comparisons.

eHarmony is giving out 10 days of free communication!

Posted by tasha on July 23rd, 2010

Today through August 1st, you can sign up and communicate on eHarmony.com for free! This is the longest free promotion we have heard of them offering, and if you start today you'll get the biggest bang for your (totally free) buck. Just click the link in this post, and start signing up. And it really is free – you don't even need to enter your credit card information to enjoy this special.

Chemistry.com Free Communication weekend is back!

Posted by tasha on July 23rd, 2010

Chemistry.com is bringing back their very popular free communication weekend.  Starting today through this Sunday, you can sign up and communicate with other members to your heart's delight.  The sign up process is pretty painless, and includes a free personality test that is actually kind of fun to take.  So jump on board the bandwagon and start meeting potential new love interests for free this weekend!

Does Identity Guard offer monitoring of credit card transactions and not just the credit card number? Do they also cover bank transaction monitoring?

Posted by tasha on July 22nd, 2010

The following is an actual user-submitted question:

Q:  Does Identity Guard offer monitoring of credit card transactions and not just the credit card number?  Do they also cover bank transaction monitoring?

A: Identity Guard does not monitor individual credit card or bank account transactions.  Instead they monitor the Internet black market and other public domains for the illegitimate use of your credit card or bank account numbers.  We have not heard of any type of identity theft protection company that will provide the level of service you're asking about, primarily because granting an entity that level of access to your personal finances is not always great idea.

This is why it's an excellent idea for to carefully check every credit card and bank statement you receive for suspicious transactions.  If you catch issues as soon as they happen, they are much easier to resolve.  These days,  most major banks allow you to set free transaction alerts on your account.  Usually you can set the alert based on transaction type or balance changes.

If you're worried about having fraudulent credit card transactions show up on your statement, you should know that by law you aren't responsible for this type of fraud. The caveat is that you need to report the fraud within 60 days of receiving the statement. Technically you could owe $50, but usually credit card issuers waive this fee.  If only the credit card account number is stolen, and not the physical card itself, you are liable for nothing.

Overall, we think our top-rated Identity Guard is still a very smart pick for  identity theft protection.  The combination of 3 bureau credit report monitoring, credit scores, advanced identity theft protection and desktop software is a provides the most complete offering we've seen and we highly recommend it.

Which of the 3 credit reports matters the most?

Posted by tasha on July 21st, 2010

The following is an actual user-submitted question:

Q: Which of the 3 credit reports matters the most?

A: The short and sweet answer is that they all matter.  Every U.S. citizen who has had some sort of credit activity, whether that be applying for a credit card, a mortgage or a car loan, has a credit report.  In fact, you have 3 credit reports as there are 3 different companies that compile this information – Equifax, Experian and Transunion.

A wide variety of sources provide the information that shows up on your credit report, including creditors, insurers, lenders and even employers.  The trick is that each of these reporting sources does not necessarily report their information to all 3 credit bureaus.  This means that your credit reports can vary.  So your credit report from Equifax can contain different information from your credit report from Transunion.

Lenders don't necessarily focus on a particular credit report.  Each lender is different, and they may prefer one over the other.   Because of this, you really need to stay on top of all 3 credit reports.  The best and most cost effective way of doing this is to sign up for a credit monitoring service that covers all 3 credit bureaus, like Identity Guard or Trusted ID.

I will share a cautionary of tale of only checking one of your credit reports.  Someone we work with recently had an (erroneous) collections notice hit only one of his credit reports, and not the others.  As a result, his (previously excellent) credit score dipped 140 points!  The good news is that he was enrolled in a 3-bureau credit report monitoring service, so he was notified within 24 hours of the change and was able to instantly beginning working to correct the issue.  If he hadn't been alerted, or if he had only checked a report that didn't have the issue, he never would have known about it….until he applied for some sort of credit.  Then he would have been in for a shock.

If I start a service with an identity theft company, and they find that I have had some identity theft that I am unaware of, how is that fixed? Will they help to correct the problem? Will they deny service until it is fixed?

Posted by tasha on July 19th, 2010

The following is an actual user-submitted question:

Q: If I start a service with an identity theft company, and they find that I have had some identity theft that I am unaware of, how is that fixed? Will they help to correct the problem? Will they deny service until it is fixed?

A: This is a very interesting question. Both of our top reviewed services, Identity Guard and Trusted ID, will help resolve issues that arise if you are a victim of identity theft while enrolled with their service.

If after signing up for either of the services, you (or they) discover some sort of identity theft has occurred prior to the sign up date, they won't deny service.  Because the theft occurred prior to membership you may not receive their full-fledged assistance package, but in most situations they will provide general assistance with the matter, such as helping to contact your bank and credit card companies.   Additionally, their million dollar service warranty is invalid for any theft that happened before you signed up.

We do strongly recommend both Identity Guard and Trusted ID, especially for those who feel they are at a high risk for identity theft.   It seems from the phrasing of your question that you believe some sort of theft may have already occurred, which makes it twice as important to protect yourself with one of these services.

NextAdvisor reviews Genealogy websites

Posted by kent on July 16th, 2010

NextAdvisor is proud to announce its newest review category: Genealogy Research Sites. We put 5 popular genealogy research sites to the test, looking for the best site for researching one's family history, from family tree building to DNA testing. By using one family line as the control, we were able to get an honest assessment of which site had the best resources.

As the lead reviewer for this category, I had a lot of fun. I discovered that a great, great uncle had been an oil well engineer in Iraq during the post war oil boom. I was able to read first-hand accounts of my great uncle's service in WWII, which tragically coincided with the death of his father, and read the original obituary too. I saw family photos that I'd never seen before. I reconnected with a family member I had not seen in years. It's the first time that I reviewed an online service with a tear rolling down my cheek.

We spend a lot of time on this web site talking about what's next—heck, it's where we get our name. We look at what's new in telecommunications, Internet security, and identity theft protection. This time we looked back. While it's technology that enabled this unparalleled access to family history, it's getting in touch with the past that makes these services so amazing.

Check out our genealogy research reviews and comparisons.