Opening up your mailbox to find it filled with free samples and free magazines is always tons of fun, but have you ever wondered how safe your personal information is when you’re ordering those freebies?  There are a few steps you can take when filling out free sample forms to protect your personal information, yet still enjoy all of the perks.

Use a junk email address — After you’ve been requesting freebies for a while, you may notice that you start receiving an inordinate amount of spam email.  Or perhaps all of those survey emails are cluttering up your inbox so that it’s hard to pick out the important emails.  The best solution is just to create a separate email address that you only use for signing up with survey companies and freebies.  Just check it every few days to make sure you’re not missing out on a hot offer!

Don’t give out your home phone number — Hopefully you’re already registered your phone number with the Nation Do Not Call Registry to prevent telemarketing calls.  If not, I recommend doing so now.  But even if you’ve registered, filling in your phone number on a contact form generally gives that company permission to call you.  If a phone number isn’t required, don’t fill it in.  If it’s a required field, try entering a simple combination of numbers such as 123-456-7890 to allow the form to submit.

Be careful about the information you provide — If you’re not comfortable providing your birth date, children’s names, etc., then by all means leave that information blank.  Never submit your Social Security Number online, and be very cautious about providing a credit card number.  Look for an image of a lock on the bar at the bottom of your browser window which indicates that you’re submitting your information on a secure site.

Beware of third-party applications — Facebook is a hot property for companies these days, with many new freebies and high-value coupons being offered on fan pages each day.  However, companies are increasingly using third-party applications that can automatically pull information from your profile.  If you’re concerned about this practice, consider setting up a second account that has very little personal information that you can use for these offers.

Above all, just go with your gut feelings when it comes to free offers online.  If it feels like it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.

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