This month's question: How can I tell if my neighbor is spying on me?
News You Can Use: hotspots for identity theft, see Jeb Bush's Social Security Number online, one way to get on the No-Fly list if you're not careful, webcam proliferation and more.

Tax time is upon us. As a word of caution, if you receive any letter or email from the IRS asking you to fill out a form, be suspicious. It might be a fake. As we noted last month, scammers are not above preying upon your fear of the taxman to swindle money from you.

This month, we talk about spying. Not the James Bond, shaken-not-stirred kind. The humdrum, everyday, report-on-your-neighbor kind. In the past few years, the government has been encouraging each of us to spy on one another. What's interesting is how eager we are to do it. If you want tips to get the upper hand, keep reading.

Remember, if there are any questions you'd like answered in future editions, send mail [newsletter AT amandawelsh.com].

And then there's my book, The Identity Theft Protection Guide.

Whoever said the best defense is a good offense got it right. The best way to tell if your neighbor is spying on you is to spy back.

There are two ways that you might sneek a peak at the goings on next door. The first is the old fashioned way: looking out the window. A number of organized programs will help. Neighborhood Watch, originally created in 1972 to promote cohesiveness and afford greater protection for urban neighborhoods, offers training to help you identify whether your neighbor is a terrorist. Find out if there is an organized group in your neighborhood. The Air Force has created a souped-up version called Eagle Eyes. They've helpfully published a list of what you should look out for.

You can also watch out for the drivers around you on the road: the American Trucking Associations runs a program called Highway Watch to encourage transportation professionals to report on suspected terrorist activity. Of course, while we're being watched by them, the rapidly expanding Amber Alert Network encourages us to look into one another's cars too. You can download a web-based ticker to stay on top of Amber Alerts even when you aren't in your car.

The other way you might spy on your neighbors is from the comfort of your own computer. Sniffer software lets you capture IM messages of anyone on a shared network - like say a Starbuck's coffee house. NetworkActiv grabs any activity at all. You have to know someone's screen name to use IM Watching, but type it into the program and you can follow any and all IM activity. Did They Read It? is a program designed to tell you if someone you sent an email to actually opened it and how long they took to read it. Or you can just check to see if your neighbor is part of any P2P network. If they are, anything in their shared folder is fair game. A Michigan musician grabs photos placed in strangers' folders and publishes them to his Found Photo website. He's not really sure if everyone knows that he's looking at their stuff.

Feel equipped? If you're still hankering for more, the Spy Store offers more than you can imagine - and at very reasonable prices.

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