Educação pode mudar sua vida

Millions of people now have a new reason to dread the mailbox. In addition to the tried-and-true collection of Letters You Never Want to See − the tax audit, the high cholesterol reading, the college-rejection letter − there is now the missive that reveals you are on the fast track to becoming a victim of identity theft. Someone may have taken possession of your credit-card info, bank account or other personal data that would enable him or her to go on a permanent shopping spree − leaving you to deal with the financial, legal and psychic bills. Deborah Platt Majoras got the pain letter recently, from DSW Shoe Warehouse. Hers was among more than a million credit-card numbers that the merchant stored in an ill-protected database. So when hackers busted in, they got the information to buy stuff in her name − and 1.4 million other people’s names. “It’s scary”, she says. “Part of it is the uncertainty that comes with it, not knowing whether sometime in the next year my credit-card number will be abused”. Now she must take steps to protect herself, including re-examining charges closely, requesting a credit report and contacting the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to put her complaint into its ID-theft database. The latter step should be easy for her, since Majoras is the FTC chairman.