How to Protect Your Privacy While Hunting for Free Stuff

Lesson 5 of our free stuff tutorial - Tips and tricks on how to keep your information private when applying for free offers.

OK, so enlighten me O' Wise One...How do I keep my personal information private when applying for free offers?

Grab a cup of coffee, put the kids to bed and get comfortable, cause this is a long one. As I've stated many times in this tutorial, you must use common sense when applying for any free stuff offer. However, if you are interested in applying, you must also understand that the company making the offer is not doing so out of the goodness of their heart. They most assuredly will try and sell you something before, during or after you apply. Companies that offer free stuff do it because they are great marketing tools to increase their customer base and...or...sales of other related product lines.

In addition, I would be remiss if I didn't make it crystal clear that there are many unscrupulous companies and individuals on the Internet just like in every day life. Many of these scalawags offer free stuff so they can entice unsuspecting individuals into their web of deceit.

Some of these scams are nothing more than an annoyance, like adult web sites posing as a free stuff site to increase traffic, or spam marketers that will offer a visitor a freebie so they can get a valid email address. Others are more hazardous, and if a curious visitor is not careful and doesn't use common sense, these shysters can bilk a goodly sum of money out of them.

So how do I protect myself in this sea of demons?

Relax, it’s really not that difficult once you know the ground rules. As I've stated above, you must scrutinize every free stuff offer carefully. Try and stick with companies you know and trust. However, since I am an avid free stuff hunter myself, I realize that the amount of free offers available on the Internet alone can cause even the most cautious of individuals to go off the deep end when applying. Here are a few tips and tricks to make your quest for free stuff a safer and more enjoyable adventure.

Numero Ouno! Get a secure Web browser like Firefox. A secure browser will allow you to surf the Web with total peace of mind as they are not vulnerable to attacks from malicious code and software. In addition to security, Firefox has a bevy of other cool time saving features that any freebie junkie will appreciate. You can view our dedicated free Web browser page by clicking this link: Free Web Browser Reviews.
Get a free email account, in fact get several. There are tons of free email services available that are easy to set up and use. Set these up with different user names and passwords. Remember not to use any personal information in any of them. Use the free email accounts when applying for free stuff offers. When a web site, company or service asks you for your email address, you just plug in one of these free accounts. If they wind up spamming you, so what, it's not your primary email account and you can always delete the account and open a new one with a different user name and password. We have reviewed many of the best free email services available and listed them on a dedicated page. You can view these by clicking this link Free Email Service Reviews.
Rotate these email accounts on a two month basis, e. g., delete one and open a few more. This will drive the spammers nuts because they'll never be able to catch up to you.
Get a P.O. Box at your local post office. These are cheap, $8.00 to $20.00 or so every six months depending on the size of the box in most areas. Now when you apply for a freebie offer and they want your address, you can just give them your P.O. Box. Note that some companies will not send offers to P.O. Boxes. The reason is, they know a lot of people set them up for privacy and they lose the marketing value of the offer. However, there are also a lot of companies that will send offers to P.O. Boxes and the freebies you get this way will more than pay for the cost of the box rental.
Get a free Voice Mail account from one of these services: JConnect - K-7.net - * Ring Central (* free 30 day trial). All of these services offer a free personal phone number and allow you to pick up your voice mail messages right from your computer via your email programs inbox or the Web. Please note that if you decide to give out your real telephone number when applying for offers, you will leave your self open to loads of annoying telemarketing calls. This will happen even if you are already on the National Do Not Call List.
There are instances where a site will ask for your credit card info in order for you to get a freebie. Yeah, I know. Right about now you’re SCREAMING WHAT! CREDIT CARDS? ARE YOU NUTS! Settle down skippy. I'm not advocating that you give your credit card info out to anyone. Especially if you feel uncomfortable about doing so or just plain don’t want to. However, there are some really cool free stuff offers available that do require a credit card number. Almost all of these are "free 30 day trial", or "buy one, get one free" offers and include nationally recognized magazines, software sites, club memberships etc.. It’s totally up to you to decide, using a common sense approach, whether an offer is worth while enough to give your credit card info out. If you do decide to apply for an offer of this type, here are a few rules to follow which will cut your risk factor down to almost zero.

NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, give out your credit card or bank information when applying for a free offer unless you are absolutely positive you know who you are dealing with! That means sticking with companies that you know and trust. Even with that level of comfort, Always take the time to view the sites terms, conditions and privacy policy pages!

Always make sure the site you're giving your credit card info to is secure! Today’s new browsers offer you a way to know for sure if a sites order form is encrypted and secure from prying eyes. All major browsers now place little "lock" graphics in their status bars when you’re on a secure page. Make sure the little lock shows up before you submit your information.

Get a low limit credit card account with an Internet protection feature of $50.00 or less. Credit Card companies are finally beginning to realize the potential of the ‘Net. There are loads of C.C. deals available for on-line shoppers that offer low interest rates, great protection features and low limits. I suggest an account limit of $100.00 to $200.00 so even in the unlikely event that the card # is stolen and the C.C. companies protection feature gets messed up, your totally liability will be relatively small.

Always "opt out" of (say no to) receiving additional information when applying for a free offer using an online form. One of the new industry tricks is to include small check boxes in an offer form that ask visitors if they want to be added to their mailing list or have their sponsors or partners send you information on special deals they offer. The boxes are usually checked by default so you’ll have to uncheck them as you move through the form. Leaving the boxes checked, or checking them yourself is an open invitation for the site to sell or rent your information to third party suppliers. Always say NO to these unless you really want, or need, what they are offering. As a side note, if the check box is for a newsletter you're interested in, wait until you're done with the free offer form and find a separate link on the site to subscribe through. This way you're not giving them free reign to add additional offers in to the mix.

Awesome Professor...Thanks for all the cool ways to keep me safe. I have another question that's been bugging me. I keep hearing that there are different types of free stuff offers...How could that be...Isn't free just free?

You've just hit on a real Hot Button issue of late regarding free stuff in general. Back when I started hunting for free stuff (in 1997) the short answer would have been yes...free just means plain old no cost, no steps, no anything FREE! Don't get me wrong, there are still loads and loads of totally (no strings attached) free stuff offers available online. However, as recently as 2001 offers started to appear online that some think have convoluted the term "free stuff". Follow me to the next lesson and I'll give you a complete breakdown of every type of free stuff offer currently available online....

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