Slashdot Mirror
Identity Theft Countermeasures?
gbell asks: "Stories about reconstructing shredded documents and horrific tales of rampant identity theft (at least 750K victims/year) have me scared and wondering if I'm being careful enough. What are savvy Slashdot readers doing to protect their financial identity? I already have fraud alerts on my credit reports, which make sure I'm contacted if any requests for additional credit happen. I've called 800-5-OPT-OUT and stopped all the credit card offers. I use unique passwords on all of my online financial accounts. I shred and pulp-ify all documents. I order periodic copies of my credit reports (although I'm irked that I have to pay for them - they're only free if you've been recently denied credit). Is there anything else I should be doing? People spend years sorting out ID theft, and I'm wondering when credit-abusers will start crying 'fraud' just to get out of debt... making things even harder for the true victims. Cops don't have time to do anything, even if you find the perp yourself. The situation looks like it's going to get much worse, and I'm willing to take steps now to increase my security at the cost of convenience. Suggestions?"
1. Delete your identity. I mean, really, do you need one? Just pay with cash and work for money under the table!
2. Steal someone elses and use it as your own. Then, if it's stolen, your real identity is still safe, and you can go steal another one.
Just do what I did ...ruin your credit and stay unemployed. I couldn't give my identity away.
If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it. -- Calvin Coolidge
Tin, not aluminium.
They make some much cheaper models ($200-300), but the Olie model would be pretty cool to have.
Is there anything else I should be doing?
Consider getting one of these.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
It's important to remember that even though identity thieves are among the lowest of criminals, they aren't necessarily stupid. It's a common tactic for thieves to prey upon those who offer the greatest "return" on the investment of the thieves' time. Those most at risk are likely to have a number of common factors: high-limit or even limitless credit cards, excellent credit ratings, a complex network of high-balance accounts in various banks, a significant amount of money in savings and investments, etc. In order to best protect yourself and your loved ones, I recommend that you minimize your profile to the would-be thieves. There are a number of simple steps you can take to ensure your safety. For example:
* Do you have student loans? If so, consider letting the payments slip a little. Nobody wants an identity that can't take out student loans!
* Keeping up on your car payments? Stop. Thieves are less likely to steal the identity of someone who is being harassed by a repo man. As an added bonus, your chances of being victim to auto-theft just decreased significantly!
* Do you have a mortgage? Possibly, but I doubt you have enough of them! No thief wants to inherit the wrath of a bank trying to track down three mortgages' worth of money!
* How are your long-term investments? CD's? Mutual funds? Privately-managed portfolio? It doesn't matter; all of these glitter to the eyes of a veteran identity thief. You are much safer holding your money in an interest-free highly-liquid invesment account (coffee can). By reducing your apparent (and real) wealth, you become a much less desirable target.
* Employed? Then why not just toss your credit cards out the window? Nothing says "bullseye" like reliable employment. And consider this: when's the last time your heard someone in the unemployment line complain about identity theft. Never? Nobody likes to go through the effort of stealing an identity only to be rewarded with food stamps and meager checks.
In the end, identity theft will remain a significant problem in America--but only to those unlucky enough to ignore the above advice. The intelligent self-accountant will even find some more creative ways to be less attractive to thieves; consider child-support payments, court-ordered deportation, and terrorist sponsorship as well! Your safety in these trying times is only limited by your imagination.
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." -Voltaire
First things first, get your fingerprints removed. A good big bucket of nitric acid should do the trick. Next up: those pesky iris patterns. I recommend you gouge out your eyeballs with a spoon and use the sockets to mount a pair of webcams. There was a story on slashdot a while back about a neural interface for these puppies. Remember, if you don't have eyeballs they can't steal your iris patterns! So far, so good. The next problem is your DNA. The bad news is, this is a cinch to steal and there isn't much you can do about it short of going round in a giant body condom for the rest of your life. The good news is, it's quite hard to use. However, before the time when ATMs authenticate you by taking a cheek cell sample I recommend you look into the latest in DNA resequencing technology and splice in a good long GPG public key somewhere. You'll have to memorize the secret key, all 4096 bits of it, and then wear a metal Faraday cage round your skull to prevent people reading it right out of your brain. -- There's a bunch of loonies in here. Loonies, I tell you!
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
I personally spent all my time over the past few years never paying bills on time, but at the very last minute. I especially did not pay any credit debts I had, but kept the merchandise and settled for a small payment with the credit company who loaned me the money for buying the items in the first place.
This all gave me an excellent (unusable to anyone) credit rating. In fact it is so good that now no one will loan me money. I cannot even buy a house or a car on credit.
You cannot imagine the peace of mind this gives me as no one will ever steal my credit identity for any reason. On top of all this, my present credit situation has saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit interest over the past few years which I would have been paying had I still had good credit. It has allowed me to buy everything with cash, saving up for those things I really need. A small side effect of this is that impulse purchases, like that new sports car I really want, but which I do not need, are effectively impossible with my current credit standing. What a blessing!
I did not start out to do all this, but having gotten cancer and being unable to work for a few years has helped me tremendously to achieve my current credit status.
=)
Roger "Dodger" Born
writing.bonrgraphics.com
Why just the other day I was shopping and tried to use that exact same number! The clerk said that he thought it was a fake number, and that he heard it was passed around in wallets back during the 40's and 50's. Of course I had to weasel out of this. I explained to him that I felt giving me SS number was too much and I was worried about privacy issues. He then said I didn't need to worry since the free market would ensure companies would work hard to keep my info secret. I asked how, and he went on about the negative publicity a corp could receive if it was found out to be leaking personal info. Therefore, since they wanted my business, it was in their best interest to safeguard my data. I retorted with the fact that since so many computer crimes go unreported, his theory doesn't hold true for all situations. I said that until laws like the one passed recently in California go into effect nationwide, we all have to be careful with our data. The clerk responded that the free market would, in time, iron itself out and end up with a situation in which our data is safe. He went on to tell me he didn't believe in the protectionist role of government. I argued that the government wouldn't be protectionist, it would simply be enforcing the will of the people and not simply acting in their best interests. He was still leery of this proposition and said he was more comfortable with a system that didn't overburden corporations with unnecessary legislation. We finally agreed that this was primarily a wait-and-see issue, and laws or lack thereof would have to be determined at a future point when e-commerce and such had fully spread. Eventually I did get my Big Mac and fries from him, even though I disagree with him on principle.
> The situation looks like it's going to get much
> worse, and I'm willing to take steps now to
> increase my security at the cost of convenience.
> Suggestions?
Try being poor. Works for me.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Killing a person who has assumed your identity...wouldn't this be suicide? Which is only illegal if you're unsuccessful?
Hey freaks: now you're ju