I never pay attention to most of the spam mail. I have my filter on so that only e-mail from approved senders go in my regular mail, the rest goes into a different folder. I scan the subject titles/senders to see if anything (confirmation from on-line shopping, mail from this forum, etc) went there. Everything else gets deleted, unopened, unread. If theres anything that looks "important", like bank notices or sites claiming suspicious activity in my accounts, etc., it's usually a scam and also gets deleted. I alway figure that if there's anything really important from my bank, etc., they will call me or notify me by mail. DH (a computer networking guy) says you can always tell by misspelled words or weird wording... example from above: "i have being paid" "in your office or home determine where you wish we meet" things like that are a dead give-away that it's a scam. Also....NEVER go to a site from THEIR link (such as the banking one like above) and give any info. I keep getting ones from paypal saying my account will be suspended due to suspicious activity. I don't even have a paypal account. LOL I went to the Paypal site directly and reported the scam. There's just so many cons out there, it's ridiculous. wanda

There is a website (I don't have it anymore) where you can put in your name and it will tell you if there is unclaimed property in ANY state that may belong to you. I did this over a year ago, after finding out that the state of Iowa (I live in Washington) had unclaimed property, shares of stock that we didn't know about, for my sister and me from our father's estate (a cousin in Iowa notified me - they went to a county fair and plugged in her maiden name - the same as mine - and up came my name. The state of Iowa conveniently had a kiosk there for that purpose). Well, I decided to see if there was any other unclaimed property anywhere else and, sure enough, there was some in Tennessee (a refund from an overpaid hospital bill in Washington somehow got sent to Tennessee from Washington. Tennesse was where the insurer was located.) So, check it out. I would never have thought that there was any unclaimed property out there for me as I am pretty careful about making sure where my money goes and whether I am paid what I'm owed. But it happens.

"I'm not sure what all the hand wringing about account numbers is all about anyway. It's not like the info is a state secret. Whenever you write a check and give it to someone, you've just handed that person your name, address, account number, and bank routing number. Not to mention a copy of your signature for them to use to try to forge future documents." All correct. And all that needs to happen is for a less than honest person with access to the days receipts start using the numbers online to make purchases. It is becoming a larger and larger problem. While the banks will usually reverse the debits from your account, you will have to deal with all the secondary effects that can occur. Other checks you have written can bounce. Your mortgage company will NOT be happy. It WILL take time and effort to get the mess straightened out like just about every identity theft case. You would be surprised how fast things can occur if a dedicated thief gets what they need.

The DO hire people to handwrite or sign those things. Lawyers do it all the time. Have you ever gotten a ticket and then received a barrage of mail from law offices? The white envelopes are all handwritten and stamped like personal mail so that you open it. Years ago when Humphrey was running for office, they hired people to sign reams and reams of letters touting how great the guy was and signing off with "your nieghbor" and a signature (you didn't have to use your real name) and then stuffed into a stamped envelope. I was one of them who got hired. Now days there are computerized sigs for things like this but they look so obvious. They still use real humans for such jobs. I know for a fact that auto dealerships hire people to hand write thank you cards and send them out to those who purchased new vehicles. They sign the name of whoever the saleman was that sold the car.