Thursday, February 26, 2009

Suggestions on signing up for email deals

I know for some people when they hear the word FREE- they think it must be a scam or too good to be true. While there are definitely those things out there- (free $500 gift card for completing this survey, wire this $ to Africa to get $$ back) there are many legitimate things for free as companies just want to get their name out there or get you to go into their store and spend more money once you're there.

That said here are two ideas to keep you protected when getting these deals.

1. It's a good idea when signing up for free things by email to have a dedicated email account specifically for this purpose. Although many of the sites I will send you to promise to not send you extra spam or sell your information to other companies, inevitably this will happen, and then you'll wake up one morning and find 967 messages in your email. (True story for me today.) Actually most of my spam is from figuring out which survey companies to sign up for, which I will post about tomorrow but really- it's a great idea to come up with a dedicated email address for all your freebies. I recommend gmail because of its ease of use, and my favorite word again- it's free!

2. Be careful about what information you give. I put my name on things, but never put my real birthday. Many of the places by law have to make sure you're a certain age and that's why they ask your birthday. Considering I am older than 18 I don't feel bad putting a day within a year of my actual birthday, but no one could ever use this information because it's not 100% true. And of course you would NEVER give out your social security number or credit card number unless you have researched the company thoroughly, and even then I would still be wary. I also don't give my child's name out.

Good luck and happy safe freebies to you!

No comments:

Post a Comment