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?"
I would just like to point out that this is not necessarily a problem of "not having time" as much as it's a problem of incentives. Cops are not incentivized to reduce the quantity of crime. Legislators are somewhat incentivized to reduce crime, or at least appear to be trying, but almost none of that actually trickles down to the department itself. Certainly there are plenty of honest individuals in the police force - but an institution as a whole, unfortunately, tends to follow its incentives regardless of how moral and honest its constituent members are. What we need is to reward police departments for actually reducing the reported crime. This of course would require a separate third party or ombudsman to report the crime to so that departments couldn't just ignore the crime reports. But IMHO this would force police departments to be more creative and proactive about reducing actual crime. Right now their biggest incentive is to get their traffic ticket quotas in each month.
-Ansel.
G=C800:5
Something similar happened to me, when someone changed their name to exactly the name of my father, and our credit reports got mixed up. (They lived in the same town, so it was odd.) All it took was a call to the credit company to get it straightened out, but we need to call occasionally to make sure that the credit gets fixed. 'das all.
are about to be pounced upon by a man-eating tiger. One man starts to properly lace up and tighten his running shoes. The second one looks at him and says, "Do you think you can outrun a tiger?"
The first man replies, "I don't have to outrun the tiger - I just have to outrun you."
You're taking all the right steps to protect yourself - short of becoming an unperson, you can't become totally secure. People who resort to breaking the law to get what they want, as a general rule, are not interested in working any harder than necessary. Make sure that stealing your identity is quite a bit tougher than that of the guy next door, and let diminishing returns work for you.
Karma: Excellent, but still won't get you laid.
Do not use your social security number for anything other than taxes and social security. Once someone has your name and SSN, they can sign up for credit cards in your name.
Health insurance, higher education organizations, etc. love using SSN because it is unique. These organizations can not require you to give your SSN.
When signing up for new service, write Please assign number in the SSN box. Most places I have done this with are happy to comply. If you already have accounts with your SSN as your id, CHANGE IT and just tell your doctors your insurance number changed.
I beg to differ. ID theft is one of the fastest rising crimes in the nation. It's easy, low-risk, and quite lucrative. Right now your odds of getting hit are about the same as being sued by the RIAA but that's sure to rise as the criminals start scripting their thefts from online databases using their PC's. I think there are two ways to stop ID theft:
1) Pass laws stopping the profileration of personal data between Corps without your consent
2) Hold companies accountable if they mishandle your personal data
I think #2 is the big one. It is unbelievable to me that TRW, Equifax, et al can compile massive databases on people without our consent that governs whether or not you can even rent an apartment and then disavow all accountability when that data is inaccurate or misappropriated.
X
If you are like me and really pissed off, and have some good advice on legislation that can be supported to change all this, please post it below.
I agree. This is another case of the FEARS Virus. Many cases of identity theft are roomates, sometimes even family, intercepting mail and using their knowledge of your Social Security number or where to find it. In fact, most of the cases labeled as "Identity Theft" are not cases of someone going out and getting a driverse license with their picture and the victim's name. Those cases indeed occur, but are far more rare and usually executed by experienced "professional" criminals.
That aside, I have taken these measures to avoid identity theft:
1) Removed any mention of my social security number from my wallet. This required complaining to my health insurance company to get a new ID Number and renewing my driver's license in person. Well worth it.
2) Destroy all "preapproved" credit card offers. Mostly this means just ripping to shreads the unique IDs/barcodes and addresses that are inkjetted on to the press or laser printed form.
3) Never give passwords or financial information to financial web sites that are not required to complete transactions. This will minimize your exposure to hacking.
Many states have laws allowing you to get a free credit report if you suspect you've been denied credit due to an error in credit bureau records. If you're still nervous without being denied credit, get a low cost credit report for about $30 from a company such as TrueCredit.com.
It would be nice if police did decide to have some semblance of a rational prioritization of infractions. So, if 'identity theft' is too piddling an issue for law enforcement to bother handling, why should having a broken tail light consume their 'precious' time?
I work with many people that are under H1-Bs. Out of those, many have access to the same data that I have. What is it that I have you say? Access to 250k or more names each month that are new accounts.
Let's do some math:
Average price per name US identity $30
That's 7.5 Million.
What's stopping me?
Hmm morals, US citizenship that I wish to keep, going to jail, family I would want to see again.. etc..
Now what's it take to buy yourself protection in Indonesia, India, Russia, China.. blah blah blah.. Do you think if that H1-B person garnered data for 2-3 months, after they found a contact that would buy the names, and made 22.5 million that they would care if they did something illegal? Hell no.. they have their original citizenship, they care nothing for the US now that they have made enough money to buy a small army of guns and lawyers to keep extridtion nothing buy a distant nightmare. What's worse, do you think anyone would ever find out what the source of this theft was? Probably not until Joe Somebody is arrested in his own home for a crime he didn't commit.
Other than for big ticket items like a mortgage or a car loan, don't use credit or debit cards unless you absolutely have to (ie for emergencies).
You may think the cashless society is more convenient (and in many ways it is unless you are in line behind ten people collecting airmiles and using their debit cards - if they could just pick the right account or PIN....), but the cashless society also makes tracking all your habits much easier for the IRS, the FBI, CIA, DARPA, or any other acronym you choose. Why make it too easy for them.
Use cash (and the barter system is always good too, wherever possible), and give out as little personal information in any given transaction as you can. this helps to protect you not just from ID thieves, but from unwanted corporate data-mining or government intrusion as well.
A thriving black market is a neccesary check against unlimited government control.
How in the world is your DOB hard to get? I can run a $39.95 report on you on the internet and get that plus your last 3 addresses, phone numbers and employers. Its printed on your drivers license, so its considered public knowledge about yourself. LOL that is the silliest thing I have heard all day..
Doesn't happen, eh? Overreacting? Let's count up my experience...started with a stolen box of checks and a faked ID. Turned into...
1. Destroyed credit report, six years and still not fixed.
2. Can't get credit.
3. Can't get a job without going through hell (good thing I like my current one)and most employers don't want to deal with trying to figure out if you are telling the truth or not.
4. $2,500.00 in direct financial damage from the actual crime (banks don't cover anything when it's checks that are stolen)
5. I spend between five to ten hours a week, every week, for the last six years, dealing with this. Can't even guess what that has cost.
But don't worry, it doesn't happen, just read some of the posts!
So, by all means, don't shred your receipts, that's paranoid. Don't bother with checking credit reports every year, the banks cover it, right? By all means, use your Social Security number for your Slashdot ID, and never worry about buying stuff online or subscribing to that porn site in Taiwan. You're just overreacting.
Boycott everything - they're all trying to fuck you one way or another
The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your check book they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name but your bank will know how you sign your checks.
When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.
Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box use your work address.
Never have your SS# printed on your checks (DUH!) -- you can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine, do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.
Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Also, carry a photocopy of your passport when you travel either here or abroad.
Here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them easily.
File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
But here's what is perhaps most important:
Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.
The numbers are:
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
The companies love to say "prove you didn't open the account."
And the proper response is "prove that I *did*". Remember, if you did, they should be able to show signatures, security photos, etc. If you want to get brutal, simply sue them for defamation and subpoena those items.
This stuff will stop when people start actually fighting back against the companies that are facilitating it.
Do you have ESP?
While I'm sure alot of Identity Theft occurs on-line, as compared to stolen cards being used in stores. I work in retail, and there is really no enforcement of using signature for verification. People all over the place use cards with signatures scratched off, unsigned cards, and any other type of defacement you can imagine. We're supposed to ask for ID (license, passport, military ID) when the signature is damaged. Often times people don't have a license on them, so we aren't supposed to sell them their purchase. Instead of letting our store lose out in sales, we just let the customer go and hope its actually their card. There are other places where reform should happen in the retail industry, but this is one of the areas that deserve attention when dealing with CC fraud.