Yourmoneyshow.com talked about the dangers of Identity Theft. 13.1 million people were affected by identity theft in 2013. The total cost was 18 billion dollars in damages. Medical identity theft is also a big problem with 1.8 million people had their medical info stolen; which cost 12.3 billion.
Last but not least was tax return theft, where fraudsters take your tax refunds by filing fake returns. The IRS has paid out 5.2 billion dollars in refunds to scammers.
How do you prevent it? Here are some tips. Don’t store information on your computer, use a service like Dropbox or other cloud based service. Shred all of your personal information with a cross cut shredder. Also don’t give out personal info like to charity fundraisers as they may be phishing.
Our guest was Doug Crowe who spoke about becoming an expert in your field and becoming a celebrity. Doug gave a really great tip on hi-jacking a news story. His advice is to use the news that people are already searching for and insert yourself into that story. Maybe you have a comment on something that is going on in the news. Or as Doug suggests, create a human interest story where you are the hero. Doug came up with a really great idea for Dr Lego. Doug’s idea was to find a school that did not have computers for the kids and have Dr Lego donate the computers or teach the kids how to fix computers or how to program.
Great tips and ideas for your business to get recognized or to raise money for your favorite charity.