Dear Flash: Good info that I'll read and re read. Have several questions. Is this the right site for questions?

First, I understand need to give out soc sec # to get paid. But when birthday is asked for, is it necessary to give exact date? other that to insure you are over 18 yrs? Not being vain here, but soc sec and birthdate seem like a very risky group of info to send into cyberspace even if you have Norton, or Symantec antivirus and probably a very basic firewall that comes with. Can you change the one part of your birthdate to to help stop identity theft?

Also, seeing ads for cash paid for surveys. Has this been sucessfull for shoppers?

Hope I'll find info here how to get paypal?
Thanks, bfriend.

I don't know that your exact birth date is an issue. And I'm not sure how they would be able to check it. If you feel that would protect you from identity theft then minor changes to the day or month would probably not make for a major issue. I would not tinker with the year. If I were going to tinker and my birthday was May 14, 2000 I think I would be likely to make it April 11, 2000 just because there are more shops that you "age out" of than that you "age into", so you would "age out" a month early. I personally do not think it would make any difference, however, in stopping or slowing identity theft. The folks who are doing that are pretty resourceful.

There are several threads and sections of threads discussing surveys. A lot of people have tried the surveys and gotten mad/frustrated because they waste a whole lot of time for nothing. Some of the surveys pay in points, some don't pay cash until you have accumulated enough to pay out. Some folks find that some surveys work okay for them. The only one I mess with anymore is PineCone Research, which sends about a survey per month for my demographic and puts $5 in my Paypal account the business day after I submit the survey. There is a list of companies that do surveys at [www.mysteryshopforum.com]

The Paypal website guides you through setting up an account with them. They are at www.paypal.com Let me encourage you to read through the "Get Started" information there. You probably want a personal account as it is free, free, free. You will need to decide whether you want to be able to transfer pay that comes into Paypal to your bank account (if you do, you will need to provide the routing number and account number), leave the money in Paypal to spend with on-line shopping (a big WHY?? there), or leave the money in Paypal and get their debit card to be able to access it. I would strongly encourage you to use the same email address for your Paypal account as you use for your mystery shopping as it makes life simpler on the applications with mystery shopping companies and my sense is that they are less likely to mess it up.

I have had Paypal accounts for years. First I had them for eBay and now for mystery shopping. I have never had problems and problems I have heard of seem to be at least in part user issues rather than Paypal foul ups. What Paypal has said they will/would do is what they have done. Nevertheless I am always the cautious one. I have a savings account open at the bank with my checking account. Only I can transfer money between the two accounts, though the bank can transfer funds FROM savings TO checking to cover an overdraft. The bank will not transfer funds FROM checking TO savings. I have my Paypal account linked to the savings account. Because Paypal can be a two way street sending money to my savings account and pulling money from my savings account to pay for on line purchases, and because my mystery shopping Paypal will not be used for on line purchases, I keep only the minimum balance of $25 in my savings account. Should my Paypal account be compromised, that would be the maximum they could pull from me because as soon as money transfers into savings I move it on to my checking account with on line transfer. If someone were to try to pull more than the $25 the request would just fail because I link no credit cards to my mystery shopping account as alternate sources of funding. I have never, repeat, never had a problem with Paypal. There have been no fees (except as a seller on eBay), no transactional errors, etc. But it is the user responsibility also to exercise caution.

bfriend--

Most identity theft doesn't happen when you do a legit transaction with a legit company online, because the transaction is encrypted. Plus you have a firewall (if you feel Norton is too basic, get AVG. It's free. Actually I wouldn't give 2 cents for Norton, but that's a long topic.) Most of it occurs when records are stolen from companies or laptops containing records are illegally taken home. The time is gone when you could avoid putting personal info on the internet. It's tied up with our lives inexorably. If you own a house or have credit cards, or served in the military, or ever been involved in a lawsuit, your information is already free for the taking at municipal sites. If you have a listed phone number, it's already in many search engines. So now you have to be a savvy computer user.

Set up your Paypal account the way Flash suggests, never put vital information on an unencrypted page, use both an anti-virus and firewall, never put your home address or email address on a forum. Flash has posted a number of other tips in her first three threads.