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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.
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.
Is there anything else I should be doing?
Consider getting one of these.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
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
Looking at one of their reports, I believe the quote was "The FTC's identity theft Web site had received more than 699,000 hits since it was launched in February 2000" that spawned that number.... The actual report I expect it's from is here, and the article from the story misquoted it - the actual number of complaints to the FTC via their hotline for 2001 was over (but probably around) 86,000.
Several websites seem to use the larger number, but most of them are selling something and just playing "woopsie" with the numbers.
At 86,000, that puts it more at the level of arson. So I'll spend just about as much effort avoiding it - none outside of common sense. However, my credit cards do have insurance, just like I have insurance on my apartment and belongings. And I don't post my SS# to usenet.
What I encounter far more often is the stupid debt collection agencies sending me bills that have nothing to do with me, where the name is slightly different and the SS# is nowhere near the same - I don't think those are someone trying to steal my identity. Rather, I think it's the debt collectors getting desperate to find someone and spamming any name that's even close hoping that either they'll find him, or someone else will pay the bill without realizing it isn't them.
Oh - by the way, the "using seperate random passwords for important online accounts" thing.... I count that as common sense. Add in - not logging into bank or brokerage services from untrusted computers, especially at Kinko's.
I write code.
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
If you are required to provide a social security number for some purpose, consider using 078-05-1120, which was printed on "sample" cards inserted in thousands of new wallets sold in the 40's and 50's. It's been used so widely that both the IRS and SSA recognize it immediately as bogus, while most clerks haven't heard of it.
See this page.
The first problem, that SSNs are used everywhere, isn't really a security problem. SSNs aren't secret by a long stretch. To use them as passwords (as in problem 2) is just not right. The problem with SSNs being used everywhere is that it makes it trivial to combine records from different databases, which would not otherwise be easily automated. Gleaning information from databases that are combined can benefit companies, and hurt consumers.
Your health insurance people sure would like to know if you're ordering books on amazon.com that were also ordered by people who bought "Advancing Smoker's Rights" or "100% LARD - gravy recipes for every day of the month".. If every database listed your SSN, a unique identifier, it's a hell of a lot easier than figuring out whether J.Doe at 31 Palacestreet is also John K. Doe at 31 Palacest.
Of course, SSNs do make it easier to access information in general, so an identity thief can make life easier on himself by using your SSN to get ahold of your credit report or medical records, but that's not a failing of the SSN itself. That's just not keeping things secret.
Mother's maiden name authentication schemes suck ass (donkey!). In general not a lot of thought is given to security, especially when everything is done on paper; it took the internet before credit cards got those numbers on the back that change when you get a new card (smartest thing ever; my CCnumber is on the invoices I get. Which also list the expiration date when the invoice is for the yearly fee.. I've not been asked for the CVC/CVV code yet..)
It's basically a choice for convenience over security.
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
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 am a victim of identity theft, and it is hell dealing with the fallout of it. Someone opened store credit accounts in my name, ran up huge charges, and never paid them. It doesn't take an AFDB to be worried about this. It happens, and it's not easy to fix.
I have been round and round with the companies that were scammed with my identity. I am just now learning how to make sure my credit reports are annotated that the bad accounts are from identity theft. The bad info stays on the accounts, which as far as scoring goes, is just as bad if they weren't annotated.
The difficult part in dealing with this is you can't prove a negative. The companies love to say "prove you didn't open the account." There is no protection for this, and plans I've had for home ownership are ruined, at least for the past couple years, thanks to identity theft.
To those of you saying the poster needs an AFDB, think about what you'd do if you found false information, using your SSN, on your credit report tomorrow. That is what has happened to me.
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..
I don't think he is overreacting. Identity theft is much easier and more lucrative than mugging. You MUST protect yourself because law enforcement don't care or know what to do about identity theft. I should know because my identity was stolen a couple years ago.
The culprit sent the Seattle Post Office a change-of-address form on my behalf, forwarding my mail to his personal residense (in another state). I quickly changed my address back. I tried to get the Seattle Postal Inspector to investigate, but he did not care. He literally showed me the change-of-address card. He had the guy's fingerprints, handwriting, and HOME ADDRESS in his hands, but he said there was nothing he could do. He gave me his business card and sent me on my way. When I called him the next week, he replied angerly, "how the hell did you get this phone number?!" I guess he must not like his job because he is certainly not doing it well.
The culprit must have received some of my mail with my stock brokerage statements. A few weeks later he contacted my stock brokerages and told them to my new address was his home address. Thanks a LOT, Etrade and DLJ Direct! He changed my brokage address about SIX TIMES before I transfered all my funds to a new brokerage. The police in my state did NOT care. The police in his state did NOT care.
By this time, I had canceled my credit cards and put an alert on my credit reports. This saved my butt! Six months later, I get a call from Sears Credit Services asking permission to issue a credit in my name. The guy was trying to use my SSN (from my brokerage statements) to get a Sears credit card. Finally, the police were interested.
They captured the guy and he did three months in jail. This was just for credit card fraud. He did no time for inter-state mail fraud or tampering with my brokerage accounts. The police officer told me that he was surprised the guy even got three months because he was a first time offender, claimed to have a drug problem, and (to quote the police officer) "he looked like a god-damned choir boy".
Unfortunately, the story didn't end there. Six months later, I got my credit report and noticed some unpaid long-distance phone bills to his home address. I had to jump through many hoops to prove to the debt collection agency that those debts were his and not mine.
The greated irony is that this guy and I went to the same university. We share the same first and last names, but different middle names. In school, I would occassionlly receive a few of his letters in my mailbox, including checks (made out to our shared name), angry bank letters, and a break-up letter. I returned all of his mail to him, with an apology for accidentally opening his letters. He never thanked me.
cpeterso
Oh, SHIT. 'Cuz I've had my identity stolen.
Jokes aside, the questioner is NOT being paranoid. The complete lack of interest that AOL, eBay, and others showed in my IDTheft case convinced me that it's a complete fuster-cluck. Jurisdiction is hazy, so the cops want nothing to do with it, either.
First, don't know what OP meant by shredding and pulpifying docs, but that sounds a step overboard. The joke about outrunning the slowest target is on par here... unless you're rich, don't sweat things THAT much.
Second, I haven't seen mention of passwording bank accounts. Call your bank, ask them if they'll allow a passcode that must be given before releasing info. Mine wouldn't even give my sister a standard receipt for a deposit 'cuz she didn't know my code. They hand-wrote one without account info.
Get splashID, S.T.R.I.P, or some other hard-encrypted storage means for secure/risk data like unique passwords and credit card info. These two are for the palm OS. Both are great. SplashID is flashy, STRIP has a keygen tool that I use for random 8-char alpha/num/symbol passwords at work. Both use AES or similarly-hard encryption.
When in doubt, make like the Reb's did in the civil war... leave a burned swath all the way to the freakin' sea. When I got hit, I took an hour to realize and internalize that Yes, this was really happening and then decided to damn well stop things in their tracks. I asked for cancellation and new cards on any and all accounts. I contacted everyone and everything I had a financial interest or account with that was big enough to concern me (savings, checking, mortgage, phone company, insurance, credit-reporting agencies, stock broker) and notified them via phone (with a written followup) the situation in enough detail to make damn sure that if anyone REALLY good took my life apart that I could sue the banks/etc. for negligence after due notice had been given them.
Then I put in a bit of effort to hunt down and destroy the cockroaches who'd done this to me. That's when I learned how poorly-handled this is by everyone involved. It was educational. How educational? Well, let's just say it's enough to make me consider a short life of crime followed by a long comfy life in some tropical nation without extradition treaties. A classic moment included eBay refusing to give me information (or even capture it and hold it in escrow for possible subpoena by law enforcement) about an account opened in my name once I'd informed them that it was being used for Identity Theft.
All said, I wasted a huge amount of time, have endured a lot of inconveniences and a couple grand worth of losses and expenses. The cockroaches got away and tried again to use my info six months later. That time, nothing worked and they went away hungry thanks to all the passcodes, new accounts, etc. I'd put in place.
Six months ago, I volunteered to help find lost classmates for a reunion. It took me a couple days of spare-time searching to get even more unnerved about the availability of data. Without spending $10-20 for more-detailed reports, I was batting .600 (60%, for non-baseballians) at finding people. If I'd spent cash, a marriage database was available that I suspect would have taken me to 95% success. Success = full name including middle name, address, date of birth, place of birth, and enough optional details like employer, children, spouse, a narrowed list to use to guess relative names from, etc. Free. And fast.
I'm not gonna go full John Doe by Choice, but I shred religiously and I'm tempted to keep cancelling/changing accounts gradually, just to thin out the risk further. I read EVERY credit-card flyer that mentions fraud/theft protections, looking for ways to protect myself, and I plan to use a disposable credit card if travelling internationally.
I'm no doubt forgetting a
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.
I was also the victim of identify theft a couple years ago. It was a very *long*, frustrating and at times intimidating process to have everything returned back to normal. I think the warnings above should be taken seriously - it is very un-fun to have your identity stolen.
In my case I was *very* lucky because one credit card company tracked me down through my employer to verify that I had applied for an account (which I hadn't). I'm not sure what prompted them to do so. At that point they informed me that I was likely a victim of identify theft and the steps that should be taken next (which was a huge help because at the time I knew *nothing* about how the credit reporting agencies, etc. worked).
I called all the credit bureaus explaining I was a fraud victim and promptly received free credit reports from all of them. When I received these, I looked through the list of "current accounts" and observed that 3 credit card accounts (not mine) had been recently been successully opened in my name. In addition, I looked in the section that lists who has been *looking* at my account, and called everyone listed there to make sure there were no *pending* accounts. I discovered one more and had that canceled before it was even approved.
Initially a little scary, it was actually pretty easy dealing with the credit card companies (fraud departments) to have the accounts closed. Among other things, each company sent me an affidavit to sign indicating I did not open the account or make any charges. Several required these to be *notarized*. One credit card company (Fleet) was particularly slow in sending the affidavit and one day after receiving it, I received a rather nasty and threatening letter from another department at that company billing me for the $7000 in charges to the account because they had not received the signed affidavit from me.
Dealing with the credit bureaus was another matter. They sent me the credit reports in a hurry, but would not let me correct any of the account information. I could verify my name and SSN, but the address and birthdate they had on file for me had been switched (indirectly) by the culprit. It turns out that when you apply for a receive a new credit card, that credit card company will update your credit report with whatever address AND BIRTHDATE you put on that application form. So this is what happened to me... I had to mail in a paystub and recent utilities bill to "prove" I was at my new address. Once they had that, they reluctantly corrected my birthdate on file as well. Fortunately only one bureau had incorrect information.
At the same time, I put fraud alerts into all my credit reports, and opted out of all junk mail. (Certain credit companies can access your credit report to see if you are a good candidate receive junk mail from them.) I found it very annoying that you cannot put a "permanent" status on any of these things. Even though I've opted out, the occasional credit offer still comes through.
My best guess of what happened in my case is that a credit offer (junk mail) was sent to my old address and intercepted by the culprit (perhaps from the garbage if the current resident just tosses mail addressed to other people). I'm not sure how they got my SSN... I suspect one of the credit card offers listed it, or perhaps just didn't require it to be verified on the application. In the future I will be careful to update my address at the credit bureaus (I didn't realize one should have to do this, but I now realize it is a good idea) if for no other reason than to make sure junk mail gets to the right place.
As I said above, I was *very* lucky because one of the credit card companies caught a bogus application early. If they had not, then I probably would have been dealing with collection agencies and had all kinds of negative entries in my credit history. The credit bureaus really don't seem to give a rat's ass about having valid info or about helping you to correct mistakes. Negative entries stay in your rep