CREDIT » CREDIT REPAIR & REPORTS

Aside from Christmas, Valentine's Day may just be the biggest gift-giving holiday of the year. Women in particular look forward to receiving big bouquets of flowers at their office, boxes of candy and maybe even a diamond bracelet (or two).

But is buying expensive Valentines gifts financially responsible? Despite mounting pressure from your significant other to buy a great gift as the holiday looms, it may be better that you get her a few unique gifts that teach her financial responsibility (even if it results in the silent treatment for a few days).

Get Her a Savings Account

What better gift to give your sweetie on Valentine's Day than a high-yield savings account? Her money would be FDIC insured up to $250,000, she have access to her liquid funds and she would be able to watch her money grow.

And if you're not sure how she would feel about a savings account, you could opt for purchasing her some CDs, open a money market account for her, or even go with a reward checking account.

If you're worried that she may be angry that you're not getting her a tangible gift, you could always deposit some money in her account to get her savings started for her.

Send Her a Credit Report and Score

Another cool idea would be to get your loved one access to her credit report from all three credit bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian) and her score.

Nowadays it's extremely important to know just what's showing up on your credit report. Incorrect information could be listed on the report that could have a negative effect on your score. Also, if you've had problems with debt in the past, you can see just how many records are showing up on the report.

Go Free Credit is currently offering a free 3-in-1 credit report and score by signing up for their trial membership. In the trial period, you get to take advantage of the following:

• 7 free days of credit monitoring from all three credit bureaus
• A detailed analysis of your credit history
• Details on who has viewed your credit report
• Unlimited online access to your credit report for 60 days

After the trial period, you will be billed $14.95 per month. Don't you think this is worth it to make sure your sweetie is able to access her report and update her score anytime she wants? What a gift!

Sign Her Up for Identity Protection

Did you know that identity theft affected almost 10 million people in 2008? There are now so many types of identity theft (credit card, utilities, bank, employment, loan, government and social networking) that it's hard to keep up with how someone could take advantage of your personal information. (See our infographic on phishing)

You don't want your lovely lady to suffer through the trauma caused by identity theft, do you? If not, then a great Valentines gift would be to get her some form of identity protection.

For instance, you could sign her up for an account with Go Identity Protect. You would be able to take advantage of a 30-day free trial period that offers:

• ID alerts: This detects important changes to your credit report that might indicate fraud
• Free credit report: You would help her gain access to her free Experian credit report
• $1 million in protection: She would receive a $1 million product guarantee to cover losses associated with stolen or misused credit or debit or credit cards

After the trial period ends, you would pay $9.95 a month to keep her membership going. You must admit, it's a lot cheaper than a diamond bracelet!

OK, you may think we're joking here, but flowers and candy are great gifts for your sweetheart only in theory. What can she do with them after they've died and gotten old? However, investing in ways to save, manage credit and protect her identity are gifts that can stick with her for years to come. So why not take the unconventional route this year by investing in your love's bottom line?

Social networks are all the rage. Whether you're hopping on Facebook, Myspace or Twitter, there's someone to catch up with, share videos with or simply update about your fantabulous day.

However, an inherent problem with joining a social network is that in order to participate, you almost always have to release some portion of your identity. Your friends want to see pictures of you and your family, you want to share where you went shopping today and you may even want to ask, "What's up with Mastercard lowering my credit card limit to $500?"

The problem is that getting too social on social networks can be a threat to your identity protection. And the last thing you need is to have to worry about identity theft when having a good time online.

How Identity Theft Occurs On Social Networking Sites

As you can imagine, identity thieves can be very savvy individuals. They know you're probably trying to protect your identity like many others, so they come up with tons of ways to convince you to give up your identity or part ways with your money. You might be surprised that they can accomplish their goal in two easy steps:

1. The Person Makes You Think They're Your Friend

This is actually easier than you may think. A person may request to be friends with you on Myspace then collect your friends and ask to be their friends as well. After they've gained friendships with your friends, they simply look on Facebook and go through the same process.

After comparing the two friend lists, they can see what friends don't have profiles on one page or the other, create profiles under their names, snag their pictures and add you as a friend.

Just that fast an online identity has been stolen. But that's not the end of the end of the story.

2. The Thief Will Ask You For Help or Personal Details

Now that the thief has taken your friend's online identity, he can now work on taking even more from you. He may say that he's in trouble and needs you to wire him $300. Or he may ask you for your address again to send out that wedding invitation - or maybe even your credit card number to help with an emergency.

You may assume that you wouldn't trust this person, but keep in mind that the thief has already gauged the activities of your friend who has given too much information about his or her life. Now all the thief has to do is mirror the conversations posted right on the walls to get important information from you.

A Story of Social Networking Identity Theft

Bryan Rutberg discovered he was the victim of an identity theft scam known as the "419" or "Nigerian" ploy that ultimately ended up scamming his friends as well. After the thieves were able to steal his Facebook login and password, they changed his status to appear that he had been robbed at gunpoint in the UK and needed money to get home.

They sent e-mails to dozens of friends asking "Can you just get some money to us" and "I'll refund you as soon as am back home. Let me know please." Some of his friends were convinced that he was in trouble, sending $600 and even $1,200 via Western Union to the UK to help him. (Read about more e-mail scams you should know)

After his family alerted Rutberg to the scam, he realized he was locked out of his account by the scammers. They even went as far as "de-friending" his wife so that she could not post a message to his wall alerting friends of the scam. He was able to resolve it the next day, but unfortunately, his friends' generosity was lost forever.

How You Can Protect Yourself

In Rutberg's incident, he tried to convince Facebook to beef up their security, but while they say they have, they explained that there's only so much support they can offer as a free site. This means it is up to you to protect yourself from the possibility of identity theft.

However, many users simply aren't doing it. In fact, PC World reports that a third of social networkers have at least three bits of information on their pages that could easily lead to identity theft. This information includes names, addresses, birth dates, mothers' maiden names, pets' names, phone numbers and kids' names.

With this information, thieves can play around with login IDs and passwords until they crack the code, and before you know it, your identity is stolen.

Protecting yourself is not impossible, however. Here are some ways that you can safeguard your identity when on social networking sites:

Of course, we all know that shredding documents, checking our credit reports, protecting our identification and disclosing few personal details all help to protect our identities both on and off the Internet. But with threats popping up on social networking sites, it's now crucial that we take even greater measures to protect ourselves.

You should join our social networks, we promise we won't steal your identity. We're on Facebook and Twitter.

The following limerick is true. It happened to one of our staff members. Finding out some thief has stolen your identity and all your money is a pretty terrible thing, but you've got to make light of yourself and then vow to never let it happen again.

Anyway, here's the story.

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