Safe Internet practices will help to foil identity thieves

Dear Heloise: We realize that remembering your frequently used Web sites, log-on names and passwords can be a difficult task. If you must write them down, please put the information in a locked drawer or box so that no one else can access the information. You also can put this information in a password-controlled file on your computer.

These steps are especially important if you are writing down information for any banking or credit-card account number that someone else could use. Unfortunately, even your own children might take advantage of your password and buy something using your credit card. By the way, writing it down as “someone’s address” is an old trick. Thieves have learned to look for address books for this reason. Linda Foley, founder, Identity Theft Resource Center

Linda, thanks for alerting my readers about safe Internet practices. For many readers who use their computer at home, it’s still advisable to keep passwords protected, especially, as you said, anything to do with financial or credit-card information. Also, passwords should not be easy words and should include a number or two. Heloise

Fast facts

Dear Heloise: I found a couple of ways to use empty pill bottles that seem to accumulate:

• Keep earrings in when traveling.

• Our community saves pull tabs from pop cans, so it is a good way to store them.

• Keep several in the sewing box to hold extra pins, buttons and even a tape measure.

Lydia Grace from Mulberry, Fla.

You may want to put a few cotton balls inside the bottle to keep the earrings from bouncing around. Heloise

Dear Heloise: To combat hair-spray buildup in the bathroom, try stepping inside the shower stall to spray your hair. The excess buildup washes off the next time the shower is used. Nancy, via e-mail

Dear Heloise: Don’t pay good money for those plastic inserts for paint trays. Instead, line the tray with aluminum foil — tuck it into the corners and wrap it around the outside. If your foil isn’t wide enough, use two sections and join them with masking tape. I’ve done this for years, and it works like a charm! Jack Wolock, Columbus

Sound off

Dear Heloise: One of my pet peeves: You have a message on your answering machine. You are told about various financial plans, interest-rate reduction options, online pharmacy information, etc., and at the end, they say, “Please press 1 for more information (to apply, etc.).”

You can press 1 all you want — nothing will happen when you are listening to a recording. Why don’t they also mention the name of the company and a telephone number where they can be reached? Ernst Graw, Devine, Texas

• Send a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or you can fax it to (210) HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com.

King Features Syndicate