The kidlets were playing nicely together this afternoon, so I snuck away for a quick chance to clown around on the computer. I follow a few different blogs and had not checked one of them for a couple of weeks, so I thought I would do so. The next thing I knew, I had been directed to another site and was informed that I had managed to win an iPad. Specifically, if I entered all of my personal information into their popped up page, I would be the lucky random recipient of an Apple iPad 2. Yay, me.
Now I have no idea whether or not that site was legitimate. It could have been completely on the up and up. However, how stupid do they think I am if I am going to answer all of that personal information just because they say doing so will get me an electronic gadget? I would sooner trust a Nigerian bank scammer with my checking account's routing number than voluntarily give all that information to some random popup.
There was a commercial out there back in my television-watching days that demonstrated how people will voluntarily give all sorts of personal information to someone who asks in just the right way. Whether the camera was hidden or openly exposed, they showed people answering questions pertaining to their maiden name, mother's maiden name, favorite color, first pet's name, favorite number, etc. Do people not realize how easy it is to steal their identity or access all of their passwords when they give up this information? Today's lucky win strikes me as a similar type of experience. For the possibility of claiming a five hundred dollar electronic goody, they would have me give them enough information for them to scam tens of thousands of dollars, or more if they are really good at it, by stealing my identity.
Then again, as a stay-at-home mother, there are days when I wish my identity had a little more kick to it. While I do not want the hassle of having to straighten out the legal mess that could occur by having my identity stolen, I would almost be afraid of having the thief reject my identity on the grounds that it is too boring. It's not as if I live life on the wild side over here. Heck, my credit card company calls me up to check if everything is okay if I use their card in two different stores in the same day. We're pretty sure they wanted to call out the militia the day we had to purchase a washer, dryer, and refrigerator. Why would anyone want to steal an identity that is tied up in kidlet-based errands and already monitored by a hyperactive credit card company?
The worst part of this whole deal, however, is having to assume the worst of that website instead of knowing for certain that it is a load of hooey. I have this little pesky whisper of a voice in the back of my head suggesting that I could have had a really cool toy if I had just taken that popup seriously. ("It's an iPad! Even Pig doesn't have one of those! Think of how much fun it would be to own!") I will never know for sure that it was not legitimate. However, responsibly boring identities do not just give away all of their secrets in the hopes of winning it big, no matter how cool the potential reward might be. Harrumph.
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