Stalking the stalker-The two sides of technology
Stalking the stalker-The two sides of technologyby Arten
How a Person Can Use Technology to Stalk You
technology changed the worldTechnology has provided a variety of positive influences in society that have changed how we communicate and look at the world. Independent studies show that each year in United States there are over 3 million stalking cases. U.S. Department of Justice reports that one in four involves the use of some type of technology. When placed in the wrong hands or used for harmful and invasive purposes, that same technology can be used against you. Now more than ever, stalkers use certain technologies in order to gain access to your personal life and habits. Not only will we show you how they do it but also how to protect yourself from it happening to you. You can be the one stalking the stalker by using the same technology that they use.
Before technology took over the typical way of tracking someone was through a private investigator. This costly process changed and with the click of a button, anybody can purchase online software or hardware that can be used to track and follow people.
Telephone Technologies
A stalker can use your cellphone to retrieve your personal information.One of the ways that a stalker will harass their victim is through repeated and harassing telephone calls, text messages, and voice mails. This can be done through either a landline or even a cell phone. Oftentimes stalkers will use burner or prepaid phones and phone cards making the phone calls difficult to trace.
Cell phones also have an internal record of incoming and outgoing calls. This record can be accessed on the phone itself or through billing records. These records can be used to keep track of the victim or as identifiers to finding out where they are currently located.
Computer and Internet Technologies
A stalker can use your computer to retrieve your personal information.While the simple methods of sending threatening emails, intercepting emails, or going through website browser history are still used by stalkers, they are also using things such as computer monitoring software and keystroke logging hardware as well. If stalkers get access to a victim’s computer, they can install and activate a Computer Monitoring System also called “SpyWare”. SpyWares can easily be installed on a computer whether it’s manually done by the stalker or inadvertently installed by the victim through an email. These programs can send daily emails to the stalker letting them know what websites and emails the person visited and made that day.
Keystroke Loggers are very similar to SpyWare programs except that they record every key that was typed. These devices are inserted between the keyboard cable and the back of the computer. Stalkers can retrieve usernames, passwords, pin codes, and other vital and personal information. This information can then be used to hack into the victim’s accounts and be used against them.
Stalkers can also put up false information up on forums and webpages in order to exploit and make them a target for other people and predators on the internet.
Location and Surveillance Technologies
A stalker can use a GPS system to follow you everywhere.Technology is constantly improving and the size of devices such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) is shrinking every year. GPS tracking devices are used in one-tenth of the stalking cases. Hidden in cars, or activated through cell phones GPS systems are extremely hard to detect. Sometimes people that feel followed and harassed are hiring investigators to spy on themselves. In some of these cases it can take months until the devices and software are found and removed.
Wireless, hidden cameras can also be installed in innocuous places such as a smoke detector, lamps, children’s toys, or even a pinhole. These devices can also be turned off and on remotely and transmit the signal from the camera to an offsite receiver.
How to Protect Yourself
Protect yourself from stalkers. Do not be a victim.One of the best ways to protect yourself from having your privacy invaded by a stalker is to first understand how they can access all of your private information. Once you’ve learned how they can track you be hyper vigilant of your surroundings. Do a weekly scan of your computer and check your programs list for computer programs that don’t look familiar. Oftentimes these programs are hidden whether by a different name, an older install date. Do this for your cell phone as well. Be careful what you share on the social networks. Once posted online your information is seen by more people than just your friends. Your information can be seen by everybody.
Know the law. The law is constantly changing. Every day new cases and new laws can help you fighting a stalker. Try to cooperate with the prosecutors. Many victims refuse to use the legal system due to fear of escalating the issue. Not taking any action may harm you in the long term. Some of the stalkers never give up.
Protect yourself. Inform your friends and your neighbors, if possible, about the situations you are in. Use the technology to defend yourself. Collect evidence that can be used against the stalker. If you have verifiable data you have a higher chance to get support from the police.
If some of the measures sound extreme and based on paranoia do not forget that some stalker are mentally ill and not dealing with them can be dangerous. Also, even if you just feel like you’re being stalked, contact the authorities before the situation escalates you can always use a good advice.
Remember!
Always have your guard up! get more info
STUDENT LOAN CONSOLIDATION: DO NOT PAY FOR IT, YOU CAN DO IT BY YOURSELF!
William D. Ford Federal Direct Program also known as the Obama Student Loan Forgiveness program is the newest, hottest, researched and most advertised news in the eyes of someone with a student loan. In June 9th 2014 Obama signed the act and, if you qualify, it will alleviate some of the burden of the student loan debt. It is not a loan forgiveness act and it will not apply to everybody. You have to apply, qualify, evaluate and only then accept it. (Note: for me it was not beneficial at this point in time).Why am I writing this article? If you go on Google and type any combination of student loan, forgiveness, deferment, forbearance or consolidation you will find hundreds of companies ready to help you with your loans. Once you contact them, here is what is going to happen:
You call, or you the company will call you back, and someone very “helpful” will tell you that since they are specialists in student loans, they will help you to get the best financial arrangement for your situation. Since nothing is free in this world, the price will be, from my findings, between $399 to $995.
STOP RIGHT THERE- You can do student loan consolidation, this is the guide for student loan consolidation do it yourself.
Let me tell one more thing! You can do EVERTYHTING that they can do for FREE. You can even get live help, for FREE, by calling the government’s FREE line. Let me reiterate what I just said. Those scam artist, so call specialists, those leeches will empty your pockets and the ONLY thing that they will do for you, is filling the form that you can do by yourself for FREE. They do not do anything else, but take your information, put it in the government provided form and read back to you what the system tells them. And you pay them hundreds of dollars!!! They called it a service, I call it a scam. When they tell you that they will help you savings thousands of dollars, all they do is they will read the same screen that you can read. They will “advice” you based on the same numbers that you see in your account. Nothing else.
FYI: The real savings are in lowering your interest rate. If the interest rate stays the same, what you get is an increase in your loan term to 20 years or more. That means lower monthly payments for a longer time. If you look close to the numbers and if you pay your loan in 20 years instead of 10 years, you will probably pay double or triple the amount you own. So, be careful when you hear “We save you thousands of dollars” or “we will lower your monthly payment by half”. Always evaluate your options. There is a side effect for everything. Also, the forgiveness part has nothing to do with their knowledge. It has to do with what you make. If your income is under a certain amount, the government will forgive your loan. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS FILL IN YOUR INFORMATION.
Do you feel lazy and you do not want to type?
Do you feel like you do not want to read the form and you want someone to do it for you?
Do you feel like this is something that you should not deal with?
If any of the above is true … You should definitely find someone to do it for you!
Hey! We will do it for you if you ask, and we will not going to charge you hundreds of dollars!
However, Do You Want to Do It For FREE?!!!!! Follow the steps:
1. Go to the government website: https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/consolidationRedirect.action?webSource=DLCS
2.a. If you have your Federal PIN sign in.
2.b. If you do not have your Federal PIN go get your pin from:
https://pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp
You have two options: Either apply for a new PIN, or request a duplicate. Ether one is fine.
3. Once you are logged in you will see the main page:
Here and from here you can find all the information you need.
Also, If you need help, and you want to call the real student loans experts, call them at 1-800-557-7394. They will answer all your questions. They are the ones that advice the so called experts. I spoke to them and they are very helpful.
4. Once you start the application process, first thing you will see are your federal loans. You can choose which one you can consolidate, or if you want to consolidate all of them.
Remember! The only loans that you can consolidate are your federal loans. For the private loans you will have to deal directly with the lender, or find another lender (bank, private investor, etc) that can buy your loan and offer you a better deal. About Private Loans, if asked I will write another article. You will also see if you call any of the loan consolidation companies that they only consolidate federal loans. The loans that you can easily consolidate by yourself.
5. Next, choose when do you want to start your consolidation process:
6. Select if you are employed full time by a public service and select your servicer. You can always read more about your options in the box you are in. Choose a servicer. Selecting the services will not affect your interest rates or type of consolidation you can do. All you are selecting is who will have your loans. The Department of Education is the one that decides what options you get.
After you click continue you will have to choose Income-Driven repayment plans:
Here you insert your income, family size and how do you fill your tax returns. The amounts you put in here will decide how your consolidation goes. Below there is an example of how the different options will look. You can see that I highlighted these options with two colors: red and green.
With red I highlighted the options that if you choose them, your payment will remain constant, or it will increase according to the terms, regardless of your income. In other words, if you choose the red options and in the future your financial situation will change your payments will not.
If you choose the green options, you can come back in the future and reevaluate your payment. What is that mean? If, in the future your income or the family size will change, you can adjust the payment terms. So, always have in mind that if your financial situation changes you can lower or increase your payments.
Note: in both situations you can pay more than needed. If you make higher payments every month, overall you will pay less interest, a lower total amount, and you will complete your payments sooner than required by the binding terms.
8. Once you choose which option you decide is more beneficial to you, the next step is to fill in the spouse information and access the IRS tax return information. If you choose any of the two options, your spouse will have to sign the request.
To access the IRS information, you need to fill in the information exactly how it was in your last tax filling.
If you do not put the identical information you might get something like this:
Do not worry, just click the “Return to StudentLoans.gov” button and the site will take you to the next page. Fill in the questions one at a time and you will be able to continue with your application.
Note: If you will not be able to submit your tax information electronically, this is what you have to do: Look for the contact information of the Servicer that you choose to hold your loans (Salie Mae, Fed Loan Service, Nelnet, etc). Contact them and ask them what is the best way to provide the required information. This is something that you should do regardless if you submitted your IRS information or not just to ask them if they have all the required information and if they need you to send them anything else.
9. Last two steps are just to read and accept the Terms & Conditions, fill the Borrower & Reference Information and to Review and Sign.
Note and Reminder: If at any point during the application have any questions with your application, you can always contact the Student Loan Support Department at 1-800-557-7394. They will help you and stay with you on the phone until you are done with your application … just like the people that will charge hundreds of dollars but, they will do it for FREE.
This Article is provided by Costa Credit Inc. If you have any questions feel free to contact us at any time at 954-256-8163 or email us at info@costacredit.com
do it yourself
Rebuild Your Credit with Credit Cards
Credit cards for bad credit.Are you looking to establish or rebuild your personal credit? If so, you'll need the right financial tools and the appropriate information to achieve your goal.
Bad personal credit and a low credit score can be extremely problematic when is the time to get a credit card. The great majority of credit cards are off limits, and even most secured credit cards may be hard or impossible to get. An additional side effect of bad credit is that most, if not all, of the initial credit cards will come with a yearly fee and relative high interest rates. With only few options on the plate many people fall into desperation and some card issuers take advantage of it by offering credit cards that are ineffective, expensive and sometime they cross the thin red line of scamming.
Unsecure credit cards:
Very hard or impossible to get with a bad credit, unsecured credit cards are something to look for after the credit picture will improve. The high cost for unsecured lines when have bad credit may not worth the squeeze. Best way to jump on the unsecured line wagon is to join the credit card of a family member that has a good credit. The rules regarding joining account for improving credit purposes changed recently due to high amount of people taking advantage of the system. Being added as an authorized user to a credit card will no longer help you build a credit history, unless, they are an immediate family member and there is a reason for them to be on the card.
Remember ... Unsecure credit cards for individuals with bad credit come with fat fees and huge interest rates, especially if they are easy to obtain.
Secure credit cards:
Secure credit cards are the way to go when starting to build personal credit. They are relatively easy to obtain with bad credit. They have low credit limits that will keep the spending urges under a necessary control for the given situation. Also, the best of them report to the three main credit bureaus. The down side is that the card the applicant must make a deposit equal to the amount provided as credit by the issuing bank. The deposit will be held as collateral until the card is closed.
To raise the credit limit, usually, more funds have to be deposited to increase the guarantee. Some programs will increase the credit limit after establishing a positive payment history, while others will switch the account to an unsecured credit line. Another way to work with the secure credit cards is to close the account once built some positive history, and open a new one with higher limits and better terms.
Remember ... You should use the secure credit cards to build credit and not to use them as long term loans. Pay in full and avoid monthly payments that will accumulate interest. The price for accrued interest can be very costly.
Suggested path: Secured credit cards.
Reasons: Easier to obtain, lower APR rates, lower yearly fees, greater options to choose from, self adjustable credit limits.
KEEP IN MIND ... No matter if you are looking for a secured or unsecured credit card make sure that you double read the terms and conditions. Credit card offers for bad and fair credit are many times flagged as frivolous . The best way to avoid being scammed is to do your homework before signing up and not after. If you do not invest the time in the beginning may cost you way more at the end. ALWAYS read the terms and conditions.
Visit www.costacredit.com to read more on how to boost your credit, repair your credit, use credit cards to rebuild credit, reestablish credit.
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