The jobless rate in the US just keeps rising. More companies are laying people off, which means more people are looking for work. And that translates into more opportunities for identity thieves to gain access to your personal information.

Be cautious when applying for jobs online. Don't give out any more personal information than you absolutely must. And be sure that the companies that you are applying for are legitimate companies. You can do that by going directly to the company web site to place online applications.

Above all, learn what to expect when you're using the Internet as a job hunting tool. You can learn more in these articles:

• How to Protect Identity From Employment Scams;
• How to Avoid Employment Scams;
• Top Internet Job Scams;
• Beware of Phony Work at Home Offers.

Hello friends! My apologies for being quiet for the last couple of weeks, but computer issues had me completely offline until just this week. I'm back now, and guess what? I have something new for you to think about.

What'd you get for Christmas? In my household, there were two new iPods, two new cellphones, and a new portable GPS system. It was a gadget Christmas, which sound cool until you realize the dangers that gadgets present to your identity.

It's true. Many people include personal information on gadgets that they carry with them all the time. Information that could be very valuable to an identity theft. So, it's essential that you learn how to protect your gadgets and your identity from identity thieves.

I somehow missed the first iteration of this scam, back in the summer. Evidently, phishers are using Google Calendar to send phishing emails. The victim receives a Google Calendar invitation and then is prompted to confirm an account by providing personal information.

I'm a big fan of Google, and hate to hear that very useful programs like Google Calendar are being used to trick people into providing personal information to identity thieves. I am not, however, surprised. Google and many other companies offer many useful, web-based applications that could be misused by criminals with the right knowledge. So, as always, my suggestion is use extreme caution and never give out your personal information.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. But now that it's past us, it's time to get back to the business of keeping your identity safe, and I just learned about something very disturbing.

In catching up on the news I missed during the holiday, I ran across and article about holiday identity theft. In the article, there's a brief mention of hotel key cards being used for identity theft because there's personal information encoded on the magnetic strip on the card.

Wow. That's a little scary. But I dug a little deeper, because I wanted to know more. And it turns out that the idea of hotel key cards being used for identity theft is a little uncertain. Hotel owners claim they don't encode personal information on the cards, even though people report scanning the card to find that they have, in fact been encoded with personal and even credit card information.

So, the question becomes, are these key cards a point of risk for identity theft for you? Maybe. And the best option is probably for you to destroy them when you check out of the hotel, rather than returning them or leaving them laying in the room. Just be careful. Some hotels charge a nominal fee ($3-$5) for key cards that aren't returned.

It's probably a long shot that your identity could be stolen with a hotel key card, but why take the chance? Especially when all you have to do to protect yourself is destroy the card on your own.