GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE: During this summer’s international games in London, the potential for identity theft related scams could be heightened as travelers look to cross the Atlantic to support Team USA. Identity thieves can pose as trusted sources offering you the “deal of the century” if you just follow their link. Verify all offers by opening a new Web browser and typing in the Web address that you trust to confirm the authenticity of the offer.
LEAVE FACEBOOK AT HOME: Before departing and during your travels, consider avoiding Facebook status updates. By posting your travel plans, you are announcing to all of your friends (and even the world if your page isn’t marked to private) that you are away from home, leaving your unattended home vulnerable to invasion. Many Facebook users include their home address, mobile phone, home phone and other pieces of valuable personally identifiable information wide open for potential thieves. Consider posting your updates once you return home.
WORRIED ABOUT WI-FI?: Relax. Vacation is a time to relax so leave the laptop, tablet or smartphone at home. If you MUST take it with you, ensure that you have updated your passwords/pass-phrases and that you are not connecting to the Internet via free Wi-Fi connections. These free connections are not secure and can make the data you are transmitting (user names/passwords for accounts like Facebook, payment information for excursions) open for the right identity thief to capture.
4 C’s, Call your Credit Card Companies: Contact your credit card companies and your banks to let them know you will be travelling. Because you may be going out of state or leaving the country, the credit card company could assume that your card has been compromised and turn off access to that card. Take only what you need with you and consider leaving your retail credit cards at home.
TAG YOUR BAGS SMARTLY: When travelling by train or plane, tag your luggage smartly. Do not put your home address or the address to which you are travelling on your luggage tag. By providing your home address, you could direct thieves to your empty home. Instead, list a mobile phone number on your tag. This will allow airport officials to contact you when your luggage arrives.
Like anything else in life – you wouldnt go to a shady part of the hood and shout I’m leaving my keys on the dash… hope no one takes my car – before leaving on a two week vacation. Most importantly its make sure you dont use your debt cards while traveling – cause if those numbers get lifted you could be spending a whole lot of time without your savings and money while trying to get it sorted out (one reason I love American Express).
Want some more helpful hints and tips join the LifeLock Twitter party.
Party is on twitter with the #lifelock hashtag hosted by @LifeLock and co-hosted by @MommyPR.
When: 8/3 at 1:30 p.m. EDT.
Prizes: 1 Grand Prize: A LifeLock branded iPad & (1) one 1-year LifeLock Ultimate Membership
(6) Six First Prizes: A $100 Visa gift card & 1-year LifeLock Membership
Knowing is half the battle and knowing where you’re going is well much more… my family really loves heading to Sesame Place and we’ve done the print out directions route before and this trip I wanted to put the TeleNav AT&T navigator to the test.
The app got us there in a little under an hour and forty minutes, it automatically re-routed around some delays in New Jersey, which actually helped get us there before the rain came.
I spoke the command Sesame Place within seconds up popped the address, created directions and we were on our way. The day was a blast – it was part of their Christmas in July event – which is why you’ll see some Santa hats on the characters. You’ll also clearly see how much of a fool I’ll make of myself in front of hundreds of strangers and a few other bloggers… so I thought why not share this totally embarrassing video of me trying to bring a smile to my kids face while daddy dances by the stage.
As you can read in my past Sesame Place posts – its a great amusement park for families with young children to tweens. I think the teenagers would get bored. There are enough rides that any child from 3-11 will easily have fun much beyond that age the rides might get a little “young” for them.
Half the park is water rides which I would say is great for the 5-11 and most of the dry rides are great for that general 3-9 range. The admission prices arent terrible as there is usually a deal to be found at McDonald’s and they’re currently running the special of buying a 2012 season pass get the rest of 2011 for free.
Plenty of great times coming up with visits from Max and Ruby, The Dirty Sock Funtime band, and the holidays of celebrations like The Counts Halloween Spooktacular and a very furry Christmas.
Everyone a blast at sesame street – I have some really fun pictures of us on the rollercoaster but I’m barred from showing them online for pain of death from my sister and wife (yup it was a family outing). As I said we got there before the rain (thankfully) and really enjoyed the park. We made it around the corner to a stop at Chick-fil-a (one of our favorites that isnt in New York) and we used TeleNav’s AT&T Navigator app to get us home.
How to win it… Contest ends 11:59pm EST. September 7, 2011.
You must comment telling us your favorite Sesame Street Character, please include some method for us to contact you in the comment (twitter or email)
You get 1 extra entry for tweeting about this contest (you can do this daily). Must contain the following information:
@SesamePlace @dadarocks – http://dad.tc/puLtYO and you must also comment with the link to your twitter message.
Example: I want to win @SesamePlace tickets from @dadarocks – http://dad.tc/puLtYO
You get 1 extra entry for becoming a FAN on facebook –facebook.com/DaDaRocks you must comment that you’re a fan
You get 1 extra entry for becoming a Fan on facebook of Sesame Place – facebook.com/SesamePlace you must comment that you’re a fan
You get 1 extra entry for subscribing to our Feedburner digest mailing (right side subscribe by email) – you must also comment that you’ve subscribed
You will have 24 hours to reply before we pick another winner!
Disclaimer: Sesame Place is providing these tickets for the raffle.
