Wallets, purses, monthly bills

Read and translate the following text :

Imposter Fraud/ True name Fraud

Criminals armed with a few simply obtained facts about you (name, Social Security number) can open fraudulent bank, credit card, etc., accounts and even get their hands on your money. There are things you can do to protect yourself from this kind of fraud, but with technological advances everyday, nothing is foolproof. Here are a few tips:

Wallets/Purses

Limit the number of credit cards that you carry because the fact is that thieves steal these items. The thief will have less to work with if he gets his hands on these items. Memorize your SS# so that you won't have to carry the card and limit the papers you carry with this information on it.

When mailing outgoing mail with sensitive information, credit card bills, etc., mail them from an official postal pick up box and not from your unsecured home mailbox. Using your residential mailbox ( in Br. with the little red flag) is asignal to the local thief that you have outgoing mail. Thieves sometimes steal the mail, others open the envelopes, copy the personal information, then reseal the envelope and mail the item. You don't realize that there's a problem until it's too late.

Don't throw documents in the trash that contain personal information. Criminals «dumpster dive» through the trash for this kind of information. If you can, shred the documents, if not, use a black marker to mark out the personal information, then tear up the documents before discarding them.

Pay attention to your mail. You should know how much mail on average you receive each day. If there is an interruption in that amount you have to contact the post office to find out why.

Never give out personal information over the telephone. (How many times do we have to say this?) If you initiated the call and know who you are talking to it may be OK to give the information if it is necessary to accomplish your needs.

Check all of your monthly bills upon receiving them. If you find something that you don't recognize on the bill, especially credit cards, contact the issuer immediately, and resolve the problem. It could just be a mistake on the issuers' part or it could be criminal activity which will only become worse.

In today's market information is a valuable commodity and criminals are paying for this information from «brokers» who sell it.

Reading check exercises

Consult a dictionary and practice the pronunciation of the following words. Pay attention to the stress.

Imposter, foolproof, outgoing, dumpster dive, to accomplish, wallets, purses, monthly, thieves, technological, to memorize, unsecured, to throw, dumpster dive, to tear up, average, to initiate, issuers' part, worse, valuable commodity.

Answer the following questions.

1. Why should consumers limit the carried number of credit cards?

2. Why is more preferable to mail letters with sensitive information from official post boxes?

3. What other recommendations will you give your friends concerning their personal information ?

3. Explain what is meant by:

The thief will have less to work with if he gets his hands on these items; mail with sensitive information ,memorize your SS#; dumpster dive; to initiate the call; to be a mistake on the issuers' part; information is a valuable commodity.

Retell the text.

Vocabulary and grammar work

1. Write down the families of the following words:

technology, memory, to secure, to sense, to reside, to issue, to dive, to inform.

2. Explain the meaning of the following words in English and give the Ukrainian equivalents:

dumpster, mobster, imposter, criminal (n), issuer, commodity, foolproof,

commodity, technology.

Complete the table .