Magazine subscribers beware

Apparently there are at least two groups who've gotten hold of magazine publishers' mailing lists (not hard to do, since most of them sell their subscriber lists to direct marketing companies). These two groups, using the names Publishers Service Exchange and United Publishers Network are calling subscribers and asking for credit card numbers for "renewal".

Just thought I'd pass it along to anyone interested. Bad credit is your best defense against identity theft, but for those who aren't lucky enough to have utterly destroyed their credit rating yet, a good rule is to never under any circumstances, give your credit card number to anyone who calls you, but only when you initiate the call.

On a side note, I used to work in customer service at Intel. One of the projects I worked on was fixing bad orders, which involved calling people and verify all their information, including credit card numbers. I was amazed at how many people who I called would cheerfully give me their name, address, credit card number, even social security and mothers maiden name, without bothering to verify who it was they were giving all this information to...