I Can Get Your Social Security Number

 

This blog is NOT intended to be used for ANY illegal usage, this particular article is to be a warning to the reader and the need to keep private information private. 

As I scan the dark side of the internet looking for information for my different publications I keep running into something that seem obvious yet is hidden in plain sight. Identity thieves and hackers value a Social Security Number above most things. We, the honest folk, stupidly give them enough information so they can in a few minutes have everything they need to get our number 80%+ of the time without us every knowing it or even being able to verify that someone has been snooping.

Facebook, Tumblr, Myspace..... thanks, you gave me most of what I need to know.

Follow the steps

The SSN is made up of nine digits

I need two pieces of information from you
1) Your date of birth. Most people give this out without thinking
2) Where you were born. Once again nothing to hide.


To simplify matters (but not necessarily needed) the last 4 digits of your SSN. Think about how many times you give that out. You do it on websites, all types of applications and just about any and every where. We do this because we think the last four digits are not enough to do us any harm.

There are fine tuned algorithms that will fill in the first 5 digits and rougher ones that will get the last 4 digits (if you have not already given them away) at a fairly high percentage rate.

 An example of the problems that could happen would be a credit card verification service, they recognize the challenges of data entry from illegible forms and usually allow up to two digits of the SSN to be wrong even giving multiple attempts before black listing an IP address. You would assume that they would use a higher protection scheme then just an IP address verification (they are out there) but most if not all do not employ the measurements you would expect.

A good bot computer can go through create and verify 40-60  social security numbers a MINUTE. This is not good news for us average folk. Keep your birth date, place you were born and if older where you applied for your SSN private..... otherwise you may not be so happy one day.



I purposefully left off this blog where you can get the software to do this. My readers are honest people and frankly we do not break the law.

Back Up Your Facebook Account

There comes a time when you realize that your Facebook account holds many things that are important to you. There are pictures, friends list and private messages that you really would not want to lose. I personally needed to find old inbox notes and wall posts so that I could start legal proceeding against a woman who had been stalking me for over a year. The nice thing about this system of back-up is that even if you have blocked someone or they have blocked you the information is still there.

This is the easy and Facebook approved way of saving all of the information that has become your "virtual" life.

1) Under the menu under "Account" Click "Account Settings"

2) Click "Learn More" beside "Download Your Information"

3) You will then be asked to verify your password

4) After verifing your password it will give you the opportunity to download your Facebook account.

It may take awhile for Facebook to format your information and you may have to check back a little later. This does give you access to your old pictures, posts and notes and most everything.

Facebook Friends Informaion

Have you ever wondered who rejected your friend request or who mysteriously dropped off you friends list? This is a simple solution to find out.

You need to be running Firefox web browser.

Click here and install Greasemonkey.

After you have installed Greasemonkey and restarted your browser

Click here and install Facebook Friends Checker

That is it.... nothing more to do.

When the script detects that someone you used to be friends with is no longer one of your friends, a message will appear informing you about who it was and giving you a link to their profile page. The script checks by default once per hour when on Facebook, but this time can be increased through

Tools >
Greasemonkey >
User script commands... >
Set time interval to check for removed friends.

It is really a nice thing to have and use.

Free Proxy Software

If you are hacking, snooping or just wanting to hide your tracks on the internet then you should us Proxy Software to change your IP address. Your IP address is recorded on any website you visit (including this one). I have had people who get upset that they can be traced when visiting a website but the fact is EVERY website can and does do this.

1. Click Hotspot Shield to get your free anonymous proxy server.

2. Go to www.whatismyip.com and check your IP Address.

3. Now, install Hotspot shield software on your computer.

4. After installation, run Hotspot shield and the free proxy software will open itself in a default browser. Then, the software will connect with fastest available anonymous proxy server.

5. Now, go to www.whatismyip.com site again and check your IP address. You will see it has changed.

Disabling Hotspot Shield is even simple. Disabling is achieved by going to Hotspot shield icon in taskbar, right clicking and selecting Disconnect/OFF.

It is as simple as that. You are now anonymous and can search the web with less likely hood of being seen.

Temporary Email

Sick and tired of getting spam? Do you hate being forced to disclose your email address for ridiculous reasons? Get a disposable email address! This can be used to sign up for things that you do not want to use your "good" email account for. It is also useful when you do not want to give a person your actually account.

While signing up to an online account on web, you can use these disposable email addresses provided. This keeps your real email address protected from spam. These services provide you with email addresses of the format you desire. Temporary email addresses last for time duration varying from few hours to some months, depending on the type of service you use

1. Mailinator

2. Yopmail 


3.  MyTrashMail

Free Google Phone

Once only available by personal invitation Google Voice provides you with a single number to centralize all the phones in your life. Your Google Voice number can ring multiple phones all at the same time or individually, depending what you choose. Google Voice also includes Web-based voicemail with instant text transcription, the option to set personalized greetings for different callers, and the ability to send and receive unlimited text messages. And best of all, it's completely free.

Google Voice is also full intergratable into your Android or BlackBerry phone. It is very easy to setup and use. At this time Apple is still keeping it out but who knows what the future will hold.

Google Voice

Ultimate FaceBook Add On

This was sent to me from Tina Duree and seems like the Ultimate FB add on. It can tell you who has visited your FB page, who has searched for you and tracks all of your current friends. This will help you know when your friends are on Facebook and what they are doing.

Simply download here Ultimate FaceBook

Install

This is AD ware, in other words it is free to use but will load ads. The ads will ONLY show up when you are running the program and at no other time. I do understand that people do not like "ad ware" and it is seen as a problem but this does not take over your system and only comes on while running. I will look for something that is not "ad ware" but I doubt I will find anything.

To use .... AFTER you log on to Facebook then run the program. When you are through then exit the program to stop any extra ads from popping up.

Have new fun with Facebook

I have not fully tested this myself yet but if you have questions please email me and I will forward them to Tina.