Travel Tips for Thanksgiving Weekend

Many of you will start your travel today for the Thanksgiving day weekend. Here are a few advanced tips ... just in time before you start your well-deserved break from work:

Know what you can carry
It's worthwhile going through the website of the Transport Security Administration (TSA) and getting familiar with the new security procedure in order to avoid your frustrations after arriving at the airport. In particular, it's important to go through the list of prohibited items (click here) and make sure what you can and can't carry in your carry-ons.

Get the traffic report
Find out what's happening at the airport on fly.faa.gov, which lists real-time flight delays. For security lines, check out waittime.tsa.dhs.gov, which lists security line wait times by hour for any terminal at any U.S. airport.

Park online.
Airport parking lots fill up fast during holidays. Book a spot early at parknflynetwork.com . Most lots give a 10 to 25 percent discount to online bookers.

Surf for free
Before you leave the house, find free airport Wi-Fi hotspots at wififreespot.com/airport.html so you can easily get online during long flight delays and spend some quality time.

Warning: Fake IRS Email Scam

Last week FBI, Better Business Bureau and California prosecutors issued warnings concerning potential disaster related fraud schemes in connection with the Southern California wildfires. Many of these schemes are Internet-based scams representing themselves to be disaster relief charities.

In a new development to that story of phising, IRS issued a warning about a new scam e-mail that appears to be a solicitation from the IRS and the U.S. government for charitable contributions to victims of the recent Southern California wildfires.

In some cases in an effort to appear legitimate, the bogus e-mails include text from an actual speech about the wildfires by a member of the California Assembly. A link in the e-mail sends the e-mail recipient to a Web site that looks like the IRS Web site, but isn't. They are then directed to click on a link that opens a donation form that asks for personal and financial information.

The IRS categorically said that it does not ever send e-mails to taxpayers soliciting contributions to a charitable cause. Recipients of the scam e-mails can help IRS in thwarting this scheme by forwarding any such e-mails to phishing@irs.gov.