Sex offenders want to steal your identity

Or so you would think… Like many others, I received a notice from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that my personal information was among the many that were compromised and as a result I was offered free credit monitoring for a limited period of time.  So like a fool, I froze my credit and accepted the free credit monitoring… the frozen credit has resulted in an inability to obtain a store credit card and as far as the free credit monitoring most of my alerts have been to let me know that there is a new sex offender in my area.  As someone who has passed the 50 year mark, there are times that I’d be flattered if someone would make a sexual advance but more to the point of this post I fail to understand the relationship between sexual offenders and identity theft.  Do sexual offenders have a greater propensity for stealing identities?  Where is that study?  I haven’t seen it and have a hard time intuitively making this type of conclusion.

Used Phones – the Samsung Galaxy S3 versus the iPhone 4S

 (Galaxy S3 on left; iPhone 4s on right).

At first blush one may wonder, “Why this post?”  Certainly there are plenty of good reviews of both.  Another first thought may be, “Is this a fair fight?”  I mean, just look at the 2 phones and the picture would suggest a David vs Goliath match up.

The reason for this post is to discuss 2 decent choices for used cell phones.  A little over a year ago, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S3 for $125.00.  Recently, I purchased an iPhone 4S $80.00 with the expectation that it would be a nice transition for my wife who is using a “flip phone” on AT&T’s “Go Phone” service.  Given the excellent communication, honed over 20 plus years of marriage I guess it should have not been a surprise when my wife responded by saying, “just cause I say something, doesn’t mean I’m going to do it” (or words to that effect).  So what was I to do, but give the iPhone a try.  This match up came as a result of a price – both are used phones that can currently be purchased for around $80 - $125 so there is a budgetary match up.  This post is not meant to replace any of the many fine individual reviews already available; rather, it is geared to practical consumer type reflections after using both phones.