I love the holiday! I have ever since I was a little girl. My family and I would begin to decorate the day after Thanksgiving. In fact, that’s the day my dad would go into the garage and pull out all the Christmas lights we owned… quite begrudgingly I might add, as my mother, who LOVES Christmas lights, seemed to add more to the collection each year.

In the beginning, my dad would lay out all the ‘old’ C-7’s on the grass and plug them in checking each light if a cord was out. Soon he transformed these cords into cords that allowed the other lights to still illuminate even if there was a light out in the row.

If only we took this much time and care to protect our identities all year long and check our credit reports every now and then for ‘burnt out bulbs’ or perhaps upgrade our security practices to help protect our identities better.

My family has kept every ornament that my brother or I have ever made, yep, all the way from the paper and glitter Christmas trees to the bric-a-brac covered pinecones, they’re all there. Baby’s first Christmas ornaments and miniature soccer player angels as well as ornaments from my grandparent’s trees that have been lovingly and carefully wrapped and nestled into boxes from the 1940’s are all present on our tree. Imagine if we kept all of our financial and personal information as diligently.

Financial records are important to keep track of. Purchases, receipts, tax returns, pay stubs, bills, credit cards, all personal information that should be kept in case of discrepancies and for our own personal records in case we become a victim of identity theft. If we kept this information, we could file police reports easier in case of a theft. Yet, we don’t seem to care for these documents like our treasured Christmas ornaments.

In my family on Christmas Eve, a Yule Log would be burning in our fireplace as my brother and I opened presents from our parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends. Then we would get into our ‘footie’ pajamas, make S’mores in the fireplace, set out a special Christmas Mug and Plate especially for Santa of milk and cookies, as well as a carrot for Rudolph, then climb into bed and try to stay awake as long as our eyes would allow in hope to hear or see Santa Claus.

Think of this, Santa Claus, a man we’ve never met, who knows our inner most hearts and our year-long personal behavior characteristics. Naughty? Nice? Present? Coal? A man who knows where we live. A man we tell our most desired wishes to. A man who uses alias’s to get by, Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, Pere Noel, Baba Chaghaloo. A man whom we welcome with open arms into our homes one night a year to leave presents, and he doesn’t even use the front door, he shimmies down the chimney. Any ‘regular’ person who did this would be considered an intruder. Now heed this thought, how many people know about our personal information or our own personal behavior characteristics? How many other ‘Santa’s’ are out there searching to invade our personal identities? The point is, we never know who might be looking into our lives getting ready to leave lumps of coal in our proverbial stocking.

With this in mind, be on alert for Santa Fraud this holiday season. In fact, ask the real Santa Claus for a shredder for Christmas, or maybe a subscription to LifeLock. Spread the holiday cheer and give a practical gift everyone will love, LifeLock for the whole family! Don’t get caught in a battle between Santa Claus and Santa Fraud, let LifeLock sort it out!

Merry Christmas!
~Christina Hall

In this holiday season, along with stuffing the turkey for an annual Thanksgiving meal, what else might be stuffed? Our wallets. With the holiday season looming on the horizon and sales galore barreling towards us, what else are we to do but shop?

As we shop the sales, identity thieves are shopping for our lives. Much like we pick out the best deals and steals during holiday sales, identity thieves are also shopping for the best deals. For an identity thief, the ultimate ‘steal’ is a purse or wallet. Why? Our wallets and purses contain a plethora of personal information just ripe for the picking. Think about it, most of our wallets and purses contain an assortment of items from credit cards and sippy-cups to social security cards, checkbooks, and the occasional family photo. If you were in the business of shopping for identities, wouldn’t you want a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all your identity theft needs? Of course you would. Wallets and purses provide identity thieves with just that service. A purse or wallet can contain our life. If a thief were to acquire our purse or wallet, besides the occasional crumpled gum wrapper or receipt, they would have access to our driver’s license, credit cards, bank account information, checkbook, social security number, insurance information and perhaps even information about our children and their identities.

How do we protect ourselves? With all the ‘stuff’ we carry, do we each know EXACTLY what is actually in our possession at any one time? Probably not. Therefore, it seems to be a great time, not only to inventory what we each carry, but to identify those items that are unnecessary for day to day transport on our person. Here are some tips to keep in mind while cleaning:

• Do not carry your Social Security Card
• Do not carry birth certificates or passports (or copies of them)
• Only carry one or two credit cards
• Carry minimal amounts of cash
• Make copies of every card you carry and keep the cards you’re not carrying, along with the copies of the cards you do carry, in a safety deposit box, or locked filing cabinet

For the simple fact that an identity can be stolen easily and quickly with the right information, and the fact that ALL that personal information can be acquired through a purse or wallet, wouldn’t it make sense to protect and guard that valuable information? Sure it would. However, even when we’ve done our best to keep our personal information personal, sometimes our information gets stolen anyway. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone would restore all our personal identification items and credit cards as if nothing had ever happened? Of course! That’s what WalletLock is for. On top of the holiday stress and making sure Aunt Betty doesn’t have to sit next to cousin Jerry at Thanksgiving, or that the turkey will come out alright, you don’t need to deal with an identity theft issue too. WalletLock will go the extra mile, even over the river and through the woods, to take care of your identity restoration process and help make Thanksgiving a little more thankful this year! Thanks LifeLock!

~Christina Hall (Miss New Mexico 2006)