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Cringely on Identity Theft
Boiled Frog writes "Prompted by the theft of his mail, Cringely investigates how easy it is to steal identities from government publications. In this article he explains how he got the identities of 300,000 people which he calculates to be valued at $65 billion dollars. If Cringely can do it, anyone can."
Watch out - this could happen to you.
"...valued at $65 billion dollars"
Come on editors, I know it's early on the West Coast, but really.
Some bastard stole my identity and wrote that article under my name!
I'll only go as high as $50 billion and not a penny more!
"People" using "unnecessary" quotes should be "shot".
If I were Cringely, I would have sold those names and now be the proud new owner of Microsoft. Free the source!
It also helps if you keep your bank account overdrawn, all your bills behind, and just generally be a lousy target for ID Theft.
At least, that's my suggestion.
The above post is an editorial, the poster cannot and will not be held responsible for all or in part for it's contents
Pssst, Mr. Hawking. Try that one again.
$65 billion dollars
Did you get it that time? Lets try again..watch closely now!
----> $ <----65 billion ----> dollars <----
Did that help?
Wreck your credit score every 7 years by declaring bankruptcy.
:-)
Then no one will want to steal your ID
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
It's the latest trend in Mathematics! In reality he's got data worth about $.35, but when you extrapolate $200,000+ per infraction, he's on a goldmine!
I propose they start teaching this in textbooks in elementary school! Then everyone will have access to this revolutionary idea!
---- Move SIG...For great justice!
My solution to discurage anyone from stealing my identity has been to default on all my student loans, consistently pay my credit cards a few month late, and write anti-government propeganda letters to the local paper (amazingly, I still have my DoD security clearence!). The scammers run screaming...
I love the smell of trolls in the morning. I bet your employer will love reporting your taxable income to the IRS with a fradulant SSN. I guess it is true that you're identity will be protected if you keep all of your money in a big wad of unmarked nonsequental bills under your matress, but banks offer other services beyond mere identiy theft that you may be interested in.
Oh, you forgot one thing. Make sure you never ever give out your true name, no matter who it is. Once they have your real name they'll own you. Also, make sure to use the heavy duty aluminum foil, the regular stuff doesn't block the mind-reading rays for crap.
I read the internet for the articles.
My lesson learned: shread everything.
EXCEPT the DICTIONARY!
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
I need some money(being unemployed), who do I sell my info to?
Just let me make sure I get that email about creating a new credit file first!
moo.
Oh, come off it, only an illiterate shit would fall for this.
There are a lot of people in this world who aren't as intelligent and perceptive like you so obviously are!
This is no better than the usual spam.
I disagree strongly. Getting an email that looks as if it is coming from a bank or service you subscribe to is not the same as getting an email about enlarging your penis.
(I'm being generous letting them off w. the "unknown persons" bit b/c, while it's bad grammar (person == singular, people == plural), but "person or persons unknown" has made it into the vernacular)..
You, sir, are a bit of a twat.
Has he ever thought about a career in piracy? He'd make an excellent Dread Pirate Roberts.
Cheers,
Ian
Like my pizza place. I've discussed it with them time and again, but they won't deliver to my PO box.
Your family is really into version numbers eh?
Well, at least you should be stable...
Watch out for your son though =P
you sure she'd been home all day? :P
Can you imagine what would happen if a misguided Robin Hood decided to popularize the techniques and teach them to America's poor?
Tyler Durden?
Durden?
Durden?
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Three months later, I get a call from ATT wireless about my enormous phone bill. I told them they must be mistaken so they tried a couple of different things to verify that I was me, then called the cell phone to do the same thing. Obviously the person on the cell phone couldn't answer the questions.
As far as I know, the only thing that happened was the cell phone account being closed. I would have gladly paid the bill if they would have just given me the cell phone number and a list of called/incoming numbers.
My plan was to find the bastard and call him by my name while beating the shit out of him untill he fessed up that he wasn't me and told me I have the wrong guy.
He read the earlier /. article and downloaded the Whois database.