A photo of the daffodils at our little library, taken when we were in the midst of our walk yesterday.
This is a day when my stress level is high, my friends, so I’m going to make this brief. Thank you for understanding.
Enjoy your day and the eclipse.
Stay safe.
Happy Monday.
Hope you feel better soon and have a nice week, Claudia.
Sending you peace and love today.
X Chy
((((((( Claudia))))))
Hope your day improves!
ceci
I pray for an ease to your stress. Thanks for the time you took to post a photo of pretty daffodils.
I have been a victim of three notifications from three different companies over three weeks that, again, my personal/private data has been found on the dark web due to the breaches; I probably said this already; it is preying heavily on my mind, can hardly think of anything else; and I, too, am experiencing too much stress over it. I spoke with a high school friend of mine and he said that he and his wife have never gotten such a notification; have never been told they might be part of an identity breach; whereas I’d guess my husband and I have gotten ten or twelve such notifications in recent years. It’s just very scary and I don’t want to feel so unsettled.
I have to breathe. Let’s breathe together, Claudia. XO
I get them occasionally. I know it may seem foolish, but in the end, there’s nothing I can do about it. My notices are from the companies involved saying there’s been a data breach. I just shrug my shoulders now.
But I’m not making light of it, Vicki. I understand how stressful this can be. Breathe, my friend. I’m doing the same.
xoxo
Thanks, Claudia. It really says something about your wonderful nature that when you’re stressed yourself that you can still reach out to somebody else who’s stressed. I went thru a period a long time ago where I know I was likely officially-clinically depressed to where I couldn’t seem to have empathy for anyone or anything as I was so wrapped up in me and my own survival; so, I know the difference. Just remember, Claudia; you’re strong in mind, spirit and body; you’ll get thru this.
xoxo
sorry you are having those hassles, vicki. they are not fun to deal with and scary to think about.
members of my family and i have had a couple notices like that in the not-too-distant past. am sure that you and your husband will take care of the matter, but may i please share a suggestion based on our experiences? we called the businesses (most often medical offices, but one was a bank) directly that have sent such “identity theft” notices … looking up their phone numbers directly (not using anything listed on the notice in case it was from a scammer) and spoke with someone there to confirm the matter. once confirmed as a real notice about customer/patient records being hacked, we then called all three of the major credit reporting bureaus (experian, trans union and the other one), and we did not rely on telling only one of them and having that one someday tell the other two about the problem … we called each of them. we put scam alerts on our accounts and put them on “freeze” indefinely. and asked the credit reporting bureaus if there’s anything else we or they can do to help, then done that stuff if there were any other steps to take (can’t think of any right now). also notified our banks (if we ever paid by check or debit card) and credit card issuer (if ever paid by credit card) so they can put a watch-notice on things. there might be other things to do, based on what data might have been exposed … like notifying social security, etc. … but we’ve always started by contacting the business that is sending the notice to make sure it is legitimate.
ugh. a drag, for sure. sorry that you are going through that. hope you have lots of good things coming your way to balance out the crummy stuff. i am praying for you!
xo,
kathy
I froze those accounts, as well. A long time ago.
that offers some peace of mind, doesn’t it? :)
xo,
kathy
xo
Yeah, my husband and I are still sorting some stuff out, mainly because he has no free time and isn’t home much due to his work and commute (makes him also short on patience!) and I’m wanting his help, but we froze everything with the credit agencies a long time ago.
I just have some confusion with notes I’d made at the time, that it looked like one freeze had to be renewed after a year, which I didn’t do, but I think I misspoke to myself about it in my notes, meaning that it was probably the fraud alerts I needed to renew. Because I think once your credit is frozen, it’s frozen; til you unfreeze it. (But if an identity thief has all your info, can’t they do that, too; and then open accounts in your name, take out a loan? Yikes.)
Like you, same thing though, with the notifications of breaches from whatever companies have noticed/admitted the hacking having happened, what can we do but be vigilant with credit card statements and the bank account; it’s just this time, it’s different, because it’s the watch-dog service I pay several hundreds of dollars to, for yearly monitoring, that has intervened and said, yeah, it’s not just a data breach notice from such and such company (that you COULD be/MIGHT be part of the breach with theft of your info), but we’ve actually detected your private info on the dark web now. THAT is new; THAT is bad.
So, for me, that’s unlike any other time of breaches; but, I do think they’re gonna help as much as they can with removing the private info on the dark web, I hope so; thing is, I’ve been exposed and it only takes once, so in terms of effectiveness, I feel skeptical. And you know what really grabs me is that my husband and I are SO careful with our private information with both purchasing and other types of stuff, like how we use credit cards, how much we disseminate medical info and to whom; where and to whom we ever give a paper check; what we do on the internet and how we use our devices. I even still tear off address labels on junk mail in the snail mail. I don’t throw an empty prescription-drug bottle into the recycling container for pickup unless I remove the label first. (I once lived across the street from a medical doctor who didn’t even do that at his own house!)
I have a friend who noticed a bogus charge on her checking account statement a few months ago. She got a copy of the check and someone had invented a check with her name, writing it for $1400; of course not how she signs her name on checks and they’d even spelled her name wrong. She really had to fight the bank over it, though, saying they should have caught it. Thing is, she hands out checks from her checking account to every Tom-Dick-Harry. Anybody knows nowadays that a paper check can be washed, the info copied. Again, I still write checks; but, on certain transactions, I’ll go get a money order so that my signature and bank numbers can’t be copied (if it’s not somebody I feel I can trust with my check in their hand). Of course I know folks who never carry cash, never write paper checks, never even go inside a bank. Their entire ‘life’ is online.
It’s not really feasible in today’s world that we can live a life of all-cash and in-person transactions. Computers and the web are part of our lives. It’s overall how the world does business. But I hate that this kind of fear and bad news around identity theft has to be in any of our lives. Sometimes, lots of times, I wish I was living in the 1950s, modern technology not always being our friend seventy years later.
Thanks for listening; I’ll shut up about it now!
That’s the whole purpose of freezing the accounts. Unless they have your password (I can no longer find mine) they can’t unfreeze them and any automatic credit check would thwart them.
I’m so sorry, Vicki.
Okay, that makes me feel better.
Thanks. I appreciate your thoughts and tips; I appreciate the time you took to spell it all out.
thanks, vicki.
glad you and your husband have done what you can, including paying for that watchdog service. scary that they found your information on the dark web. stay vigilent!
i have the same understanding, that putting a “freeze” on your account (with the three credit reporting bureaus) stays there until you tell them to take it off. and yes, a password is needed to do that.
hope you (and your check-writing friend) stay safe. i still write checks, but not many (rent and charitable donations … and i am very careful about that). every single thing i pay on a regular basis that can be is paid by automatic withdrawal from my checking account; been that way for probably 25 years. for the very occasional treat (such as from a potter on etsy or some other source i don’t know), i use paypal. i don’t respond to surveys. long ago i “opted out” everywhere i could and signed up for the “do not call/write” lists, but still get lots of junk mail. i call/write those groups to take my name and address off their lists and tell them not to sell, trade, etc. my personal information with anyone. i’ve been keeping a list of that information to share with my state and us representatives/senators and the governor because it usually takes an hour per week to take care of that stuff; plus in a year’s time i’ve probably used two books of stamps to help keep my name off those lists and i’d like very much to not have to do such things (saw in the news yesterday that the price of a first-class stamp is expected to go up soon to 73 cents … third increase in less than a year). ugh!
anyway, again, stay safe in every way … weather, covid, creepers … and have a good day. hope you, your husband and pup can do something relaxing and fun!
sending a hug (if okay),
kathy
dear Claudia/Don — hope your day improves soon and for all week also. love the daffodils — ours are long gone — now we have beautiful redbuds blooming. stay safe/healthy
Claudia, hope the source of the stress goes away soon and your anxiety level decreases. Hugs.
hopefully by now (after 5:30 pm your time) you are feeling better. i hope so and pray so, that whatever’s been causing you stress has stopped and the day’s gone better than you might have first thought and you’ve been taking it easy all day.
thanks for the photo of daffodils … beautiful!
sending hugs (if okay).
xo,
kathy
Hope your stress lessened as the day went by, Claudia. Sometimes we all need a day off to contemplate things. Hugs, Elaine
<3
Brief and beautiful. I hope the stress eases soon. Chill and we’ll see you when we see you!