Hi,
 
I read about the AFA membership mail going to California.  I believe the
cost is a little bit more due to AFA correspondence having a ferret on
it.  The AFR, (the newsletter), comes with a mailing label just on the
back page, (big black and white picture of ferrets on the front)..  we
don't want people seeing it to pinpoint ferret owners in California.  The
cover is always of a ferret and very visible.
 
I believe the status is to have the mail come with annonyminity, so no
one knows the mail is ferret related due to the legal status of them.
This way no one can point fingers at ferret owners.
 
FERRETS magazine and the old Modern Ferret magazine had the same thing,
if you lived in CA, it was a little more in cost to keep in anonymous.
AFA is a wonderful organization.  Please don't let this deter anyone
from joining, it's done to protect CA ferret's identities.
 
 
For the Pay Pal issue, I work for a bank and within the past week, 2
people have come in and said their identity was stolen via Pay Pal.
There's someone out there who created a PAYPAL site that is almost carbon
copy of the original site and it comes up and asks you to refill out your
security and personal info to update their system.  You think your going
to the original site but it redirects you.  We've looked at the carbon
copy site and it is just amazing how close the 2 are.  So beware of this
happening to you and if you receive something from PAYPAL, call them and
then can verify it.  But do not send any information over it.  Identity
theft is rapidly increasing and we need to protect our identities from
this.  It's not a pleasant task to fix and it doesn't happen quickly.
 
Thanks,
Pattyferret
[Posted in FML issue 4897]