The house always wins

March 23, 2012 1:08 PM

Odds on the street: I think that my neighbor has a gambling problem. What should I do to protect myself and those around me?

I think that my next door neighbor has a serious online gambling habit, and my experience of people with a problem like that has not been good, with having been the victim of identity theft and the like in the past. I'd like to take some steps to protect the people in my household. So far, I have come up with lockable post boxes to protect the mail from being intercepted, but what other steps could I take to protect those near me from any possible problems or fallout from this?

posted by anonymous to sports, hobbies, & recreation (6 answers total)

Get a shredder. All junk mail goes in the shredder.
posted by colin_l at 1:13 PM on March 23, 2012

Put a freeze on your credit reports
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:26 PM on March 23, 2012

Opt out of paper statements, shred everything, freeze credit reports.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:30 PM on March 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

In addition to tips mentioned above, make sure your Wifi, if you have it, is very secure. WPA2, strong passkey, and possibly MAC address filtering. You don't want someone snooping on your electronic communication any more than you want them snooping into your paper communication.
posted by wondercow at 2:18 PM on March 23, 2012 [4 favorites]

For WiFi - you can hide the signal, altogether, so it doesn't show up on anyone else's computer - call your provider for technical support!

While you do that, go ahead and change the name of your wireless router and the password, again, technical support!

Do this.
posted by jbenben at 2:09 AM on March 24, 2012

Put a freeze on your credit reports

Doesn't do much good, from my personal experience. I placed a security freezes with all of the major credit reporting companies years ago after having found out about a new credit account started in my name. I eventually forgot all about the freeze until many months later when I got a call requesting authorization for a company to access my credit report. In the interim, I had made who knows how many online purchases via credit card; bought a house (!), with a mortgage and all the attendant inquiries into my credit; applied for and received a new credit card; and started up utilities at my new house. All of these things went off without my ever being contacted for authorization for anyone to access my credit reports.
posted by parrot_person at 6:48 AM on March 24, 2012