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."

Comments

You want some wine with that cheese?

[Seth Finklestein]

Jeez, Cringely. First you ordered a book from amazon.com, one of the most consumer-hostile companies on the Internet given their "privacy policy" and dependence on trivial patents.

Then, you expect the corrupt government postal service to deliver it on time.

Here's a tip, Cringely. Go to this place called a "book store." It sells books for cash. You may have been able to "save" 50 cents on a Kelley Blue Book from spamazon.com, but how much is your privacy worth?

Pay for everything in cash. Never work for an employer that demands your Social Security number; if asked for it, make one up and use it instead. The algorithm for validating SSNs is freely available. Don't trust your money with "banks" or "credit cards." The only way to prevent identity theft is to protect your own identity as if it were a golden object -- or, as the French say, un objet d'or.

Hmmmm....

[SilentSheep]

Scare-mongering anyone???

The end is nigh!

[BoneFlower]

Cringley actually sounded smart! the world is ending tonight!