• You are offered a “free” medical screening or equipment (such as a wheelchair, walker or diabetic supplies) — all you have to do is provide your Social Security number, Medicare information and/or health insurance policy number. Sometimes free medical offers are legitimate — for example, your community hospital may offer periodic free or discounted health screenings, such as mammograms or blood pressure tests. Be suspicious, however, of such offers at or near commercial settings such as shopping malls or health clubs — they may be “rolling lab” schemes in which scammers skip from mall to mall or gym to gym, administer tests (which may themselves be bogus), then bill them to your insurance or Medicare. And, as for that free wheelchair, why would a company simply give you medical equipment? Once an unscrupulous company has your signature, it can try to bill Medicare for equipment or services you do not need or do not receive.

• You (and/or your insurance company) are charged for services that were not provided. Crooked physicians involve themselves in schemes to obtain “reimbursement” for medical visits you never made or tests you never had. They assume that you won’t look closely at your statements and that if you do, you won’t know one treatment from another. You can protect yourself by keeping careful records of all medical appointments and procedures and comparing them with statements from your doctor and insurer. If you detect a discrepancy, immediately contact your insurance company to challenge it. Many companies offer ways to report suspected fraud on their Web sites.

• Request copies of your current medical files from all medical providers. You have a legal right to these documents under HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996). Carefully review them and correct any false or incorrect information.

• Be careful with your Social Security, Medicare and insurance policy information — these are the tools thieves use to steal medical identities. Though you can do little to keep them from gaining access by hacking into a company’s database or breaking into a doctor’s office, you should protect this information in every way you can. Shred all documents with these numbers so that they can’t get them from your trash.A common trick: Calling and requesting a policy number or other private information because it is necessary “in order to process a payment or claim.” If someone wants your Social Security number or other such information, always ask why. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons — for instance, perhaps a hospital requires this information to be paid for treating you. In that event, verify that it is a legitimate request by asking for the caller’s name — then you can call the hospital and ask to speak to that person. If you discover that there’s no such person, promptly report the incident to your insurance company (as you should with any suspected fraud).

• Never sign a blank insurance form. Fill out, sign and date only one claim form at a time. Giving blanket authorization to providers to bill for services can lead to overcharges and other abuses. Keep copies of all such forms.

• Don’t agree to let your health-care provider keep your credit card number on file. When you conduct medical transactions online — such as refilling prescriptions or purchasing contact lenses — Goodman advises minimizing data exposure by typing in your information each time you order. When you trust your credit/debit card data to these institutions, you are also trusting that they are safeguarding it adequately, and all too often that is not the case.

• Use care when disposing of confidential information since any private information can be used to get more. Shred ATM and credit card receipts and take security measures with stored paper documents, computers, iPods, PDAs, smart phones, computer printers and other electronic devices that can store personal data.

• Do not assume that all is well because you don’t owe money. Once every few months, make a point of sitting down to compare your medical bills with the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statements from your insurer. Follow up on any discrepancies, such as services you did not get, office visits you did not make or medical equipment you did not use.

• Always scrutinize your monthly credit card statements, including health-care charges. Promptly report any unauthorized transactions to the issuer and any instance of suspected fraud to your insurer.

• Monitor your credit report. Request a free copy from each of the three nationwide consumer credit-reporting agencies at least once a year and review it for suspicious entries. If you detect any, challenge them. If necessary, file a police report. To get your report, go to http://www.annualcreditreport.comor call 877-322-8228.

Source(s):Eduard F. Goodman, JD, LLM, CIPP, chief privacy officer, Identity Theft 911, LLC, Scottsdale, Arizona. Goodman is an expert in privacy and personal data protection, wireless networking liabilities and cyber-terrorism. He served as the 2008-2009 Section chair of the State Bar of Arizona’s Internet, E-Commerce & Technology Law Practice Section.

Good intentions for weight loss are wonderful. Like a whole lot of folks, I swore I would start to exercise more, go on a diet, and lose those extra pesky pounds for good. Months later, I’m still deciding on the ‘best’ diet for me, and paying the monthly gym dues for visits that I am ‘just about’ to get around to. What’s the hold up? I had the best of intentions to lose weight and keep it off. I never got started. According to the experts, I failed because I didn’t have a specific, workable, weight loss plan. Studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people with firm action plans were more likely to engage in goal driven behavior, (eg.weight loss). In my case, I wanted to lose weight and start a healthier lifestyle. But as you can guess, this isn’t as easy as just writing down “Lose weight and exercise more”, and sticking it on the bathroom mirror.

Developing an action plan is a process you must go through, really think about, clearly visualizing what you want. By answering the following questions, you can create your own weight loss and exercise action plan.

What are my goals? What, exactly, do I want to achieve? Get those ideas out of your head and on to paper. That helps to make them concrete and doable. Who doesn’t like checking off lists when they get done?

There are five specific things you should keep in mind when writing down all of your weight loss goals:

1. Make your goals specific. Don’t say you ‘need to lose weight’ or I’m ‘going to lose weight’, say you will do it. For example: “I will lose 15 lbs and take a walk every evening.”

2. Make your excercise and weight loss goals measurable and specific. ‘I’ll walk on the treadmill three times a week for a half hour at a speed of 3.5 miles an hour’.

3. Write down your chosen goals. Create both short term and long term goals for losing weight. Keep a chart or journal to track progress and give yourself some encouragement as you reach your weight loss milestones.

4. Set deadlines. Make your weight loss goals not only measurable, but time specific. Set your weight and exercise goals realistically. It’s hard to pursue goals that can never be attained. Unrealistic goals that never seem to be reached can add to your stress level.

5. Give yourself emotional reasons for continuing to lose weight. What moves you to action? Imagine your feelings when you succeed. What will your reward for achievement be? Write it down and plan for it.

When should you begin? How about right now! It’s decision time. You can continue to dream about a healthier life style, starting to lose weight and looking better, or you can do something about it today. You can stay stuck in your rut, or you can make a change. You can put off your happiness until another day, or you can begin doing positive things now, that you know you are capable of doing.

The choice is yours. It’s easy to fall into the trap of ‘someday.’ Someday I’ll lose those extra pounds, but right now I have so many other things to take care o’f. The truth is, you will always have things to take care of, people to see, and places to go. You have to make time for a better life for yourself because you are worth it.

Now that you know how to set up a specific, goal oriented, weight loss action plan, there is nothing stopping you!

For more info on Goals & Goal Setting visit:
http://www.bruisedonion.com/guide/goal%20setting/

Web Site promotion should be the major part of your web site
marketing plan. It’s not enough just to design a beautiful web
site and put in on the Net. Promoting your web site has to be
done constantly if you want to get a continuous stream of
traffic to it. If you don’t drive traffic to your web site, your
online business venture will soon fail.

1. Create a web site marketing plan – if you fail to plan then
you default to a plan for failure. When designing your web site,
create a plan on how to market it as well. Try to put yourself
in your customers shoes when doing this. It’s too easy to just
view your web site from your own perspective. You need to have a
clear vision for your business, goals (short and long term) you
wish to achieve and the strategies of how you will accomplish
them.

2. Define your target market – many online marketers promote
their web site aimlessly in a field which is too large i.e. they
may use bulk mailing as one of their promotion strategies. Of
course you may get some visitors but the chances are you will
not make many sales. Why? You have not narrowed your field of
customers and targeted them. If you sold Cadillacs online for
instance, you are not randomly going to market to every person
on the Net. Your target market may be previous owners of
cadillacs, or people who routinely purchase luxury American
cars.

Getting targeted customers to your web site, will increase sales,
because they will have more interest in your product or service
than marketing to a general audience.

3. Use several promotion strategies – don’t just stick to one
form of promotion because you never know which one will work the
best for you. If you use many channels i.e. search engines,
email marketing, forums, writing articles etc you have a greater
chance of getting more traffic to your web site.

4. Promote continuously – if you want to drive constant traffic
to your web site, you must promote it continuously. Web traffic
is the lifeblood of your online business. For example, you could
constantly optimize your web pages for the search engines,
resubmit them if needed, visit discussion forums every day and
write an article for online publications every two weeks.

5. Calculate your return on investment (ROI) – this means
keeping track of how much money you invested in your marketing
plan and what profit you received in return. This will avoid
wasting large sums of money thrown aimlessly into advertising.

If you calculate it takes 100 visitors to your web site to
generate one sale and with each sale you make $10, then you
shouldn’t spend more than 10 cents to get each targeted visitor
and still make a profit.

In order to know which aspects of your marketing campaign bring
the most visitors, you must be able to monitor visitor activity
to your web pages.

6. Analyze your web site traffic – by analyzing your web site
traffic, you can determine what marketing strategies are
successful. You can then change them as necessary, to boost the
sales or services from your site.

Your analysis may include what keywords your visitors are using
to find your web site, which web pages are the most popular and
where your visitors are coming from. These are essential
statistics you should know, instead of blindly promoting your
web site and hoping for the best.

7. Test, monitor and track your results – to run an effective
online marketing campaign, you need to constantly test what
works and what doesn’t. Tracking the response to an ad may cause
you to refine it until it generates a great return on the money
you invested. Once your results are satisfactory, you can then
roll out your ads on a larger scale and spend greater sums of
money.

You should also monitor your site in the search engines, so you
can optimize your web pages for higher search engine rankings.
This will attract more visitors which leads to higher profits.

Web site promotion strategies will differ for everyone, and will
depend a lot on your product, web site and your personality. Try
everything you can, record the results, and see what works for
you.

For more tips and advice about Forums visit:
http://www.bruisedonion.com/guide/forums/

Whether you are just getting started or are an experienced eBay Power Seller, having an eBay Store is a wonderful way to reach potential customers you may not get through eBay auctions.

Here are some benefits having an eBay Store can provide your business:

1. More Profits – According to eBay, sellers with eBay Stores see an average of 25% increase in their total sales within three months of opening store. You will also save on listing fees since store fees are significantly lower than auction fees on eBay. EBay also offers storeowners promotional offers and free subscriptions to some of its services.

2. Regular Customers – People who buy from your eBay Store are more likely to turn into regular customers if you provide excellent customer service after the sale.

3. Professionalism and Credibility – A professional looking eBay Store makes you look more professional as an on-line seller. An image of professionalism adds to your credibility in customer’s minds. As an added benefit, an eBay Store gives you access to eBay’s Business Resource Center, where you can download templates for professional looking business cards and much more.

4. Save Time – eBay Store special features, such as longer listing periods and automatic re-listing, will save you time.

5. You Have Your Own Website – When you open an eBay Store you have a unique
URL you can promote both on and off eBay. Your eBay Store will be picked up by
search engines just like other websites are.

6. You Can Personalize Your eBay Store – With eBay store customization features you can control the look and feel of your store. You can create up to 20 categories to fit your individual inventory. Buyers will see what you want them to see, how you want them to see it.

7. Your eBay Store Has It’s Own Search Engine – Include your own Search box in your store and buyers will be able to find exactly what they are looking for when they are in the buying mood.

8. Special Promotional Tools – With an eBay Store you can cross promote other items you choose to buyers and you can choose what items to cross promote. You also get access to eBay Stores Email Marketing Tool – a great way to keep in touch with your customers. Additionally, if your store qualifies, you receive free monthly eBay Keyword listings.

9. Free Monthly Reporting – All storeowners receive free monthly sales reports that recap your sales activity by category. You get information such as monthly gross sales, conversion rates, number of buyers, etc. Plus, if you have a Featured or Anchor Store, you receive overall eBay marketplace data to benchmark your sales against other eBay sellers. With Accounting Assistant, you can export date from your eBay and PayPal accounts directly into QuickBooks.

10. The First 30 Days Are Free – eBay offers a free 30-day trial.

For more tips and info about eBay visit:
http://www.bruisedonion.com/guide/ebay/

Recently, while checking our company web site statistics, we noticed a number of referrals from gambling and pornography sites. Since we are certain these types of sites would not house links to us, we investigated further and determined that some of our faithful visitors may be the victims of adware or spyware.

What is adware?

Adware, in it’s most sinister incarnation, is a program that runs on your computer (like a virus) and occassionally pops up ads or redirects your browser to websites you had not chosen to visit.

What is spyware?

Spyware is software that collects personal information from you without your knowledge or permission. The information spyware collects can range from all the web sites you visit to sensitive information including user names and passwords.

How can I make sure I don’t get these on my computer?

* Never download programs or files from a website you don’t know and trust.
* Never open email attachments unless you know what they are. If you receive an email from a friend, but the text is strange and you don’t know what the attachment is do not open it. Write to your friend and make sure they sent the email.
* Keep an antivirus program running on your computer at all times.

For more info and tips on computers and Downloads visit:
http://www.bruisedonion.com/guide/downloads/