April has been designated Stress Awareness Month. During this thirty day period, health care professionals and health promotion experts across the country will join together to educate the public on the causes and cures for stress.

Sponsored by The Health Resource Network (HRN), a non-profit health education organization, Stress Awareness Month is a national, cooperative effort to inform people about the dangers of stress, successful coping strategies, and harmful misconceptions about stress that are prevalent in our society.

It is amazing how little things can add stress to our daily lives. In many workplaces, having your ID  lets you in your building, gives you access to different floors or certain restricted areas and may even give you computer access.  If you lose your ID that can give you all sorts of headaches. JAM Plastics carries badge holders that make keeping track of your ID easy!

We stock a wide selection of clear and colored name badge holders that can be easily attached to your clothing, lanyard or strap clip. for displaying and protecting your ID card. Whether you’re looking for name tag holders, employee ID badges, armband badges, rigid proximity card holders or magnetic badge holders, we have what you are looking for.

Shielded Badge Holders
Protect your identity from id card skimmers! JAM’s various shielded badge holders protect your personal information from unwanted access. These badge holders protect 13.56 MHz RFID technology cards including MIFARE, iClass, PIV, CAC, TWIC, and FRAC cards  – perfect for many government applications! Attach to any lanyard, badge reel, or strap clip.

Want more information on id card skimming? Read a recent blog posting on how you can protect yourself from identity theft!

Click here to view ALL of our style options!

You Are Never Too Young to Have Your Identity Stolen

Identity theft continues to be a hot topic in the media today. But it is not just adults that we need to worry about. Child identity theft is a growing problem in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission, the government agency that accepts identity fraud complaints, received more than 15,000 identity theft reports in 2009 for victims 18 years old or under, more than double the 6,512 reported in 2003.

Children’s identities are used in much the same way as those stolen from adults, as a basis for credit cards, bank accounts, utility service, insurance, even employment. In some instances, the culprit may live the life of a model citizen working, paying bills on time and providing few red flags to indicate that there is a problem. In others cases, they may run up tens of thousands of dollars in bills, work and fail to pay taxes or develop a criminal history — with none of that becoming apparent to the victims until they are young adults.

“Protect your child’s information as carefully as you protect your own,” said Linda Foley, who founded the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego. “Jealously guard Social Security numbers and only give them out when vitally necessary.”

In a world where Social Security numbers are typically applied for at birth and the web has opened the door to multitude of new scams, the task may seem overwhelming. But privacy experts say taking a few simple steps can help to protect a child’s identity. First, when filling out forms where a Social Security number is requested, question whether it is really necessary. Certainly, it is needed for tax purposes and will most likely be requested by financial institutions. But is it really needed by schools, sports organizations or other community groups?

Many schools are now issuing ID cards to their students so they should safeguard their ID’s at all times. Badge holders can  easily attach to your child’s clothing, lanyard or strap clip for displaying and protecting their ID card.

The Identity Theft Resource Center (idtheftcenter.org) explains the various types of identity theft and what victims should do when their identity is stolen. In addition, the center created a Web-based educational program last October to teach teenagers about identity theft and how they could make themselves less vulnerable. The site warns teenagers about putting information on blogs and social networking sites and provides details on reading a credit report and what they should do if they discover they are a victim.

Ms. Broder with the Federal Trade Commission said parents should look for clues of identity theft in the mail.

“If all of a sudden your child starts receiving unsolicited offers of credit and they’re 6, think twice,” she said. “Of course, if you get contacted by debt collectors, that’s an obvious red flag.”

If such warnings occur, she said, the parent should apply for the child’s credit report (this step also means proving that you are the parent) and, if the report exists, put a fraud alert on it immediately.