You will probably be of less risk than the unfortunate board member at HP when it comes to be a victim of pretexting, but the following tips may still be valuable to you.

Frank recommends that you contact your phone companies, banks and any other businesses where you have accounts, and do five things:

-- Change your passwords so that they are at least 8 to 10 characters long, combining letters and numbers. Be sure, too, to change your passwords every six to eight months

-- Insist the company never use your Social Security number for verification of your identity and instead use a randomly assigned number.

-- Ask the company to use three to four pieces of information to verify your identity, especially if it continues to use the last four digits of your Social Security number.

For example, have them ask you specific questions as part of the verification process the answers to which are not easy for others to get. Instead of asking for your mother's maiden name -- information which can be found in plenty of databases -- it would be better to be asked something along the lines of "what is the name of your favorite teacher in grade school?"

-- Insist that they only send account statements to your home address.

-- Insist that they only accept a change of address request in writing and that they verify that you want that change in address either by calling you or sending a postcard to your old and new address.