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ID Theft Made Easy
chiagoo writes "You may remember that 70% of the time, people will reveal their passwords for chocolate. Well, at this year's Infosecurity Europe, it was revealed that 92% of the 200 attendees surveyed would gladly trade enough information to steal their identities for a chance to win theater tickets. Social engineering at its best. Why spend time writing bots and rootkits when people will give you what you want for a piece of candy or a ticket to see The Pacifier?"
One man "provided all his information without question, but returned five minutes later asking for it back, as he thought that we could use it to gain access to his online bank account," Sellick recalled. "We gave him back his survey form, but did not provide any evidence of who we were. If we had been fraudsters, he would have been too late."
I refuse to do business with any Lakeville Liquor store in Lakeville, MN because they require a license swipe to verify my birthday. While they claim on a sign on the counter that they respect my privacy what does that really mean? Do the clerks know that those machines can store an XLS spreadsheet of all the information scanned? Do they know if those that own/operate the stores use that information later? Perhaps it's just to CYOA if some question arises from authorities later but how can I be so sure? I can't so I drive the two and a half miles out of my way to get my wine/beer somewhere else that doesn't scan. I make sure to tell the clerks that I buy there because they don't scan. Most don't care but perhaps someone will overhear me.
The manager at the Lakeville store sure did. I asked "are you going to scan that?" and when the clerk said she was I told her I would like my license back and that I was sorry that I couldn't do business with them. The clerk had no problems with it but the manager muttered that I was an "asshole" under his breath. Somehow I'm the asshole for protecting my privacy. If only more people would refuse to hand over their personal information. What happens if someone robbed the liquor store and stole the little scan box along with the register, would you be a bit more concerned then?
How about the gas station that writes down your license plate information when you purchase gas w/o paying at the pump. It's just for their economic safety they say. Do you know how much information you can get on the owner of a car from their license plate? What happens if I go inside, buy a few items, and pay w/my credit card? They now have my CC # and my personal information. That's enough for ID theft as well. I saw the clerk write down my license plate and I asked them for the paper when I left. They were a little confused as to how I knew they did that and they were VERY confused as to why I would want that back. I didn't feel the need to educate them on it though.
Even I am not immune to this sort of scamming for info. While out drinking with friends (drunk actually) I was approached by an attractive female working for Marlboro. She would give me cheap cigarette coupons and a free Zippo lighter if I let them give me a survey. Drunk, distracted, and clueless, I swiped my license and took the survey. I have been getting coupons and various "gifts" in the mail since. I could have been completely duped by these people and not had a single clue. Luckily they were who they said they were and I'm not seeing any miscellaneous charges being rung up by any cigarette companies trying to cover their lawsuits with my money. Anyone (no matter how careful) can be owned. By the way - I don't even smoke cigarettes.
So, just because we know a company (or its representatives) we should not trust them with our personal information and the more people that are willing to trade over their private/personal information for a bottle of wine, a 12 pack of cheap beer, or a free Zippo might want to think twice.
it was revealed that 92% of the 200 attendees surveyed would gladly trade enough information to steal their identities for a chance to win theater tickets.
Yeah it is cool to think that 92% of the people you have enough info to steal their identity. But lets put theory to practice and see how much of the 92% gave real information.
For me any form online I was born in 1900. My zip code is 12345, usually 666 Elm street, Amityville, NY. Phone number is 1-800-328-7448 and call anytime. I would make of 250,000+ or anything thing they have in the list that is higher. My occupation is the first drop down. Oh and my email address is who you are @mailinater.com. If the site looks up the information than I just go the governors web site and copy that info and use that. So I bet if you run a web site and you found that one than you probably could cross reference that info back to me and I would only say good job.
So I speculate that the 92% you have data from that you'll have 25% techices that give you 100% BS. It will occur to the general population once more and more people get burned to keep quiet.
I have absolutely no problem earning a living from recovering virused, spyware-ridden and cracked systems (or I guess in this case, "here's my password systems"). I encourage this idiot behavior :)
No matter how many privacy "protections" there are, it won't stop people from volunteering their own personal information.
For free identity theft monitoring, please send your name, social security number, birth date, credit card numbers with expiration dates, and address to protectmyidentity@gmail.com. We will take care of your credit record for you and guarantee that you will never have to worry about your good credit record ever again.
The IT Guy surely give you his boss email password if you give him a new and most wanted PSP.
http://www.michel.eti.br
Do the clerks know that those machines can store an XLS spreadsheet of all the information scanned? Do they know if those that own/operate the stores use that information later?
Nightclubs do that. When they scan your license, it stores your name/address/birthday for a mailing list. Big events are a mass mailing...and birthdays get you a "get in for free" pass.
I entered my friend's e-mail in hotmail, and clicked the forgotten password button. It gave me his secret question, and from there I simply asked him it. Its a secret question! Ack.
Whenever I have spare time I go out of my way to answer surveys like these with bogus data. Like they say "It'll only take a couple of minutes of your time Sir!"
I consider it an important and useful civic act to poison the noosphere with false data in order to throw off the pundits, pollsters, advertisers and fraudsters.
I could see giving up the info for a good movie, but come on, the Pacifier?? :)
Personally I think that most people are not aware that the information that they are giving could be used in that way. The problem is that our personal information has become more and more frequently asked. I remember back years ago when you could actually refuse to give your SSN but now your SSN has become a more Unified Personal ID number. This in itself is a shame. People need to be educated about what information should be given. With the article there I am sure there are quite a bit of people who actually use social engeneering to gain what they seek. But there are the other ones who would rather do things anon. What have you all done/given to win things? I know that when i refure to give out my information they usually say they cant give me what I won. It really makes you question what this information they gain is being used for when you win something. I am sure it goes into some marketing DB somewhere that the company uses. But one can never be sure or safe. My X Wife one time had identity theft happen to her and it was a major hastle for us to sort it out. Though we have no idea how the information was gained. Let me tell you tracking down where the information was gained is close to impossible.
string sig = llGetSig("dimentox"); llSay(0,sig);
Being in the telemarketing industry, I can whole heartedly confirm the stupidity of most people. Hell, I can get someone's credit card, shipping address, and telephone number, and then they ask "oh, what was this product again??"
Flash some useless piece of shit on TV, get Chuck Norris to pretend like he uses it, and people will fall all over themselves to give you all their personal information. I bet I could even ask for their SSN on a Super Duper Blender call and they would cough it up.
Slashdot sucks
That Anonymous Coward dude must've really screwed up. Everybody seems to have his password.
No Nyarlathotep, No Chaos
Know Nyarlathotep, Know Chaos
Why spend time writing bots and rootkits when people will give you what you want for a piece of candy or a ticket to see The Pacifier?
must write rootkits, to allow for future logins. don't want to be handing out candy, for each time i want to login into a system.
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
I'll make the obligatory comment: Biometrics! The sooner the price comes down on these and the reliability goes up, they will be much better than passwords. I think today, two factor authentication is enough of a hurdle.
I know fingerprints can be foiled with rubber or BREATHING, but if you combine that with voice print or retinal scan, it should be pretty secure, even today. Add in facial recognition, and you've got a secure environment.
All authentication mechanisms are just hurdles. You have to hope your hurdles are high enough to obstruct the level of cracker that is after your information.
I have convinced people at work that making people change their passwords every month totally backfires; it causes utter INsecurity when the people can't remember the password because they have to change it all the time. They end up putting it on post-it notes in drawers next to the desk. I understand the motive, to increase the time it takes to brute-force the password, but when the users are going to do this in reaction to this because they have so many to remember, then you have zero security.
In short, we NEED biometrics, and we need them widely available and cheap.
TFA: Last year, people at a transit station gladly gave up their passwords for a chocolate Easter egg.
What passwords? Did they check them? This doesn't sound too credible.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
How about the gas station that writes down your license plate information when you purchase gas w/o paying at the pump. It's just for their economic safety they say. Do you know how much information you can get on the owner of a car from their license plate?
They can get very little, actually, without access to police computers. Even if they could, it's no different from just driving around. You proudly display your license plate to hundreds of people each day. In light of this, it's not very easy to get much information from them, and it requires police cooperation. That gas station doesn't punch in the plate and go vigilante on you, they call the police and give the plate numbers to the police.
The gas station writing down your information is totally different from someone scanning your ID. Scanning your ID is a much more private process, and it requires your cooperation. However, anyone can write down a plate number. It's not even remotely the same, and it's definately not a security risk.
Computers need to explode more often.
and other personal data, just for a bit of candy. Heck, I'd do it for free. I just wouldn't give them the correct password. I'd also make sure that the personal data I gave them was total BS.
So how do we know that the seemingly credulous participants in the survey weren't lying?
Dear Sir,
ASSISTANCE REQUIRED FOR ACQUISITION OF MASS QUANITY OF CHOCOLATE
I write to inform you of my desire to acquire large quanities of chocolate in your country on behalf of the Director of Contracts and Finance Allocations of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Nigeria.
Considering his very strategic and influential
position, he would want the transaction to be as
strictly confidential as possible. He further wants his identity to remain undisclosed at least for now, until the completion of the transaction. Hence our desire to have an overseas agent.
I have therefore been directed to inquire if you would agree to act as our overseas agent in order to actualize this transaction.
The deal, in brief, is that the funds with which we intend to carry out our proposed investments in your country is presently in a coded account at the Nigerian Apex Bank (i.e. the Central Bank of Nigeria) and we need your assistance and password to transfer the funds to your country in a convenient bank account that will be provided by you before we can put the funds into use in your country.
I was at Wal-Mart late one night last week.
You know those self-checkout stations they have now? Each and every one of them was spitting out paper slips non-stop that were records of the day's transactions. My roommate snapped a photo.
Each and every slip had the full credit card number, the expiration date, and a copy of the cardholder's signature.
They were unattended, and the workers had placed plastic bags to catch the slips as they fell out of the machines.
There must have been hundreds...
At just one Wal-Mart...
Out of thousands of stores.
These people looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
In this society, we use various forms of identification for various reasons. Go ahead and get mad at a gas station clerk if you want. If they arn't writing it down then your plate is on tape. Privacy is one thing, but your licence plate is there to PUBLICLY IDENTIFY you. That is its purpose. The poor guy would lose his job if you drove away without paying for your gas, not to mention that everyone would have to pay more for theirs.
A driver's license it there to privatly identify to those you show it to, a choice you make.
Your social security number should not be used for identification except to services (taxes, social security) that require it.
If you are mad that too much information is available to someone just by your license plate, fight to change what information is linked to it, don't get pissed at some schmuck for writing down a number that is plastered on both ends of the outside of your car!
Never underestimate the power of social engineering. My sister's identity was recenty stolen, but thankfully they caught is idiots in the act courtesy of an alert bank teller who got suspicious. The bank (located in Ohio) called my sister and asked her where she was (California). When she told her they propmtly got the people arrested. As how it got out there, who knows.
I'm pretty anal about filling out web forms with fake info, and I also have a very assertive stance with my privacy. It's amazing the amount of flack I get from people when I tell them that I won't give them my personal information or that it's none of their business.
It's amazing how quick they change their tune when you tell them that you're taking your money elsewhere.
They can get very little, actually, without access to police computers.
You could not be more wrong. You can get a ton of information including name, address, previous addresses, DOB, etc. This isn't from some police database either. It's records that are available through individuals that have access to databases like Lexis Nexis.
Even if they could, it's no different from just driving around. You proudly display your license plate to hundreds of people each day.
But I don't display my CC # right next to it.
Even I am not immune to this sort of scamming for info. While out drinking with friends (drunk actually) I was approached by an attractive female working for Marlboro. She would give me cheap cigarette coupons and a free Zippo lighter if I let them give me a survey. Drunk, distracted, and clueless, I swiped my license and took the survey. I have been getting coupons and various "gifts" in the mail since. I could have been completely duped by these people and not had a single clue. Luckily they were who they said they were and I'm not seeing any miscellaneous charges being rung up by any cigarette companies trying to cover their lawsuits with my money. Anyone (no matter how careful) can be owned. By the way - I don't even smoke cigarettes.
Yeah, the copper zippo! I have one. And I love that they send me the coupons, decks of cards, CDs, all kinds of cool stuff. If they're going to be my choice of cancer providers, at least they can give me cool shit to get buried with.
Not necessarily divulged information. These studies are worthless because they ignore the very blatant fact that people can and most likely do give false information.
Tickets for The Pacifier was NOT part of the deal. You promised me advanced tickets to Revenge of the Sith damnit! If I don't get those tickets soon, I swear I'll change my password!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I'm about as close to paranoid about my personal information as anyone I know and my identity was stolen about 5 weeks ago. I give out practically nothing and it still happened. The part that drives you up the wall is how nobody seems to really give a crap about it. The police yawn, write the report, and leave. The stores all want an affidavit and then go away. Your bank gives you a new account and returns your money. Aside from the pile of paperwork I had, and am still having to deal with it doesn't seem to bother anyone that this happens. This money must have come from somewhere right?
I know I got all my cash back but I'd bring back roadside crucifixion in a heartbeat if I could get my hands on the guy who wrote $5K worth of checks using my info.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Well, at this year's Infosecurity Europe, it was revealed that 92% of the 200 attendees surveyed would gladly trade enough information to steal their identities for a chance to win theater tickets.
It's 92% of a sample of 200 random Londoners, not 200 of the people who attended Infosecurity Europe.
Congratulations sir, here is your official membership pin to the Tin Foil Hat Brigade! Your address is really not all that confidential at all; anyone can get it if they want to. Your car's license plate number is by definition public information; what are you going to do, cover it up? To get the level of privacy you seem to be looking for, I recommend that you never leave your house except to purchase necessities, and then you must walk and not drive, wear a ski mask, pay with cash, and never buy anything that would require an ID. No, that doesn't sound like much fun to me either, so I'll put up with the occaisional annoyance, which is really all this stuff is.
My philosophy is, make my info a bit harder to get than the next guy's and I'm safe(er). So the fact that there are so many others out there whose info is so easy to get, just makes me feel safer. Just like putting the Club on my car. A thief can remove it w/o too much trouble, but it's still easier for him to just steal the car that doesn't have any theft-deterrent. What does worry me is companies not guarding the information that I give them for legitimate use.
Go ahead and get mad at a gas station clerk if you want.
In the instances I listed above I never made a single mention of being "mad" or "upset" with the individuals doing their job. I just asked for the slip of paper w/my license plate number on it back. Perhaps you should not assume so much and just read what's at face value.
I've been very careful about keeping my credit card information safe, but somehow, someone got my credit card information and used it for an online spending spree for e-goods.
I then used social engineering to MY advantage to get information about the person using my credit card information. This moron did absolutely nothing to cover his tracks. After the police and Visa are through with him, maybe I'll post his information here and see if he likes being on the receiving end of this kind of theft.
.sig wanted. Inquire within.
The last few times I've used short-term parking at the LAX airport, I've been asked to pull forward so their camera can get my license plate in view, and I notice they record it in a log. Every time this happens, I question why they do it and their response is "for security." I don't understand how their recording of my license plate increases security. Nowadays, any question you ask at an airport is answered with "it's for security purposes" or "increased security."
I understand that you can write down any license plate number in a parking lot or on the road and you can easily track people that way. I just didn't like the way they told me my plate number was logged for security. One time when I asked and pressed for a better answer I was given something more realistic. I was told that people frequently try to cheat the parking garage by getting a new ticket just before they leave. (park for a week, get a new ticket 10 minutes before you exit and pay $2.00). They occasionally run audits and record license plates during the night to track who is parked in their lot. Upon exiting, if your plate is logged in the system as "parked" and you have a 10 minute old ticket, it raises a red flag.
Of course, I'm sure there are ways that an electronic log of me being parked at the airport for a week could possibly be used against me.
While out drinking with friends (drunk actually) I was approached by an attractive female working for Marlboro. She would give me cheap cigarette coupons and a free Zippo lighter if I let them give me a survey. Drunk, distracted, and clueless, I swiped my license and took the survey.
I've done the same thing before. I wanted the free Zippo to give to my brother. They were walking around with a portable device that scanned the license and accepted the signature electronically. If you read the line where you sign, it says "I CERTIFY THAT I AM A SMOKER 21 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER". I'm not a smoker, but I signed anyway to get the freebie. I always wonder if insurance companies could get their hands on that info and use it against people. Fortunately for me, the address on my license is incorrect, so no junk mail for me.
I realize you said "like LexisNexis", but I'm not so sure about LN itself. I have access, and I gave it a quick perusal.
There are some areas where you can search for information about people, but that's just a law directory, with info about lawyers. There's also a biographical search, but that only includes politicians and business executives. I tried looking myself up, for example, and found nothing.
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
The way I see it, this is not a sign that people need to be taught not reveal details about their personal life to allow identity theft, but that the standards for allowing new/changed credit and other profitable (including non-monetary) benefits from identity theft should include identifiers that people will not normally give away without realizing it's significance.
Biometrics are a good example, but even that does not go far enough.
How about a video clip where the person says something like "I explicitly authorize the following change to my personal credit/identity profile; Please add a $2453 credit line for ABC appliances to purchase a new washer/drier". This and every other change could be stored with the credit/identity profile. It could be done with a simple mic/webcam and some database extensions.
Birth certificates could include DNA data and/or DNA hashes and new credit/identity profiles could require checking that and recording of a baseline "I Bob Jones authorize the creation of a new credit profile".
New changes to that profile could be checked against past photos / voice prints anytime a change is requested. Impersonators would have to look and sound very much the person being imitated.
This would be A very strong standard to block fraud indeed.
Legislation would be required to prevent the misuse of this kind of DNA data and the accepting of new credit/identity changes without it.
In Summary: Its not the users who are broken, its the system that does not take into account their likely behaviour and provide cost effective technical solutions to the weaknesses of that behaviour.
Its not users who are broken, it's systems not taking account their likely behaviour and fixing it technically.
Who needs russian identity thieves?
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
There are many different sections to LexisNexis and you can have access to any variety of them at a time based on your security. I know of two individuals with access to this information that have nothing to do with law enforcement.
See here for information on LexisNexis' available public records.
But I don't display my CC # right next to it.
Nor do you display your credit card number right next to it at the gas station. You'll notice that parent specified when you drive off without paying. In this case, you have given the gas station no more than you give all the people you drive past during the day. If you're going to get upset about this, then you also need to yell at everyone who uses security cameras. Given the number of times security cameras have been used to solve crimes, I'm placated.
Computers need to explode more often.
"Ok mr. simpson, just fill out this form giving us all of your personal information and we will hand you this ICE, COLD 6-PACK of DUFF."
.......
"Laaaaaaa, beeeeeeeer. gimme gimme gimme!"
"Thank you for your information and here is your beer. Now, if you'd be so kind as to sign over your power of attorney we'll give you a SECOND 6-PACK."
People (and I am including myself in this) are idiots, we'd give up tons of our rights for a quick little gift.
The BBC has also previously covered this in April, 2004:
They reported that:
More than 70% of people would reveal their computer password in exchange for a bar of chocolate, a survey has found.
The story can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3639679.stm
A friend of mine works for a large retail chain. They just decided last week that it is NOT a good idea to throw ALL of their charge slips and former employee files into trash.
And I'm not just talking about some drone middle managers - this was a CORPORATE policy, for hundreds of stores nationwide.
As a poster to the BBC article said, "I'd reveal my "password" to anybody if they were offering me free chocolate! My password is "givemefreechocolatenowplease"!"
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Interesting you should mention the CC companies' push for fraud protection. In the last few weeks my wife has received two offers from one of her CC companies. They basically want to pay you $10 for signing up for the fraud protection. You know the deal, "cash this check and we'll activate the protection. You can cancel at any time, yadda yadda yadda"
Now here's the important part. The check is made out to "Wife's Name or Bearer". That's right. "Or Bearer" which means that anyone who happened to come upon that check could cash it, automatically starting a monthly charge on her CC without her knowledge. Yeah that's the way to protect her card from fraudulent charges. Way to go!
Needless to say, we are complaining to them and closing the account with that company.
Ender-
Nothing to see here
Think system wide and find the real
flaw here. Are people really stupid
to provide a handful of facts about
themselves? Or are the banks stupid
to accept a handful of facts as
evidence of authorization to access
an account?
Seems to me this whole "identity theft"
is an exercise in blaming people for the
banks' failures. I haven't had my
"identity stolen" -- whatever that's
supposed to mean. No, the bank has been
tricked, defrauded into giving up my
money to someone who happens to know my
mother's maiden name. That's the bank's
policies hurting the bank's ability to
do its job -- keep my money safe. That's
not my problem.
Calling it "identity theft" and holding
me responsible for preventing it is just
an attempt to turn the banks' problem into
my problem -- one they are happy to help
me solve for a fee of $10 a month.
No, thanks, I decline to pay a monthly
fee to do the bank's work for it.
You may not be getting junk mail but you are breaking the law.
In most states, having a wrong address on your driver's license is against the law. You are supposed to get it updated within a couple of weeks of your move.
I anticipated identity theft many years before most media outlets were reporting about it. I took it upon myself the to a comprehensive plan into action more than 10 years ago. Below is my six step plan for avoiding identity theft. 1) Get a credit card when you are young and abuse the hell out of it then do not pay the bill. 2) Avoid paying your monthly utility bills on time. 3) Get a secured Visa from your bank and then do not pay those bills, finally letting the card fall into default and then the bank keeps your secured deposit. 4) Get many Cell phone plans and do not pay those bills. 5) Buy merchandise on no interest plans and then just disappear. 6) Write checks with no money in the bank. The resulting checks will bounce and cause many warrants put out for your arrest. Now following this 6 step plan will cause your credit to just basically suck and if any thief decides your identity is his next target he will have a nice little surprise when he tries to get that new credit card in your name. In fact I have found that this can lead to more arrests of the identity thieves by causing the police to come look for me for bad debt and busting the crooks red handed. If you found this to be useful information then please deposit $5 into my checking account. If you have trouble getting the deposit to go through then here is some information to help you. Mother's Maiden Name: Disney Pet's Name: Mickey Mouse D.O.B: 12/05/1901 Phone Number: (818) 460-7477
Trade pwd 4 sex
Actually, I did that once. My girlfriend and I were having a fight because she accused me of not trusting her. As a show of trust and good faith, I told her my main password for important stuff. Shortly afterwards, we had make-up sex. After she fell asleep, I went and changed my passwords.
http://publicvoidlife.blogspot.com
My prefered secret question is usually "Pick a number from one to ten", although I will occasionally use the classic "Feathers or Lead?"
Either way, the secret answer is a 25 digit prime that I'm fond of for no particular reason. Good luck.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
The password would be 12345. That's the kind of password an idiot would use on his luggage.
In California, when you move you must update your records with the DMV, which I did a day after I moved. Instead of wasting ink and plastic by printing a new license, they give you a little sticker to put on the back of your license that contains the updated info. The DMV knows my current updated address and any policeman or other official knows enough to flip my license over and check the back for updates.
The Marlboro chicks (and mostly anyone else who looks at your ID) don't bother to check the back.
On transactions where the person isn't present (such as grocery store transactions, etc), wouldn't this still be suceptible to Man in the Middle attacks? Let's say that, in the near future, home fingerprint scanners become popular. Think about it. I want to sign into my online banking, I have to swipe my finger. Some identity thief in Podunk, Idaho can't just log into my account. But if I'm transmitting my fingerprint, can't it be intercepted and used again later, the same as a password? You might be able to avoid dupe transactions by attaching some sort of special identifier, but you can't keep me from hacking my fingerprint-swiping machine to send Person X's fingerprint to the online banking site instead of mine. It's just a file.
I've had the same issue with signing my name on electronic signature pads (I do it, I just don't like it). Once I do that, it can't be hard to take my signature that is on file and simply move it to a different location in your database and attach it to a different transaction can it? Then you print out a copy of the receipt for that new transaction and BAM!! There's my signature. And since it's electronic, I MUST have signed for it. Why there's even a timestamp. Let's see who has electronic copies of my signature...oh, FedEx, UPS, Airborne Express, DHS, damn near every place I've ever used my debit card, and the list goes on.
Granted, a regular ink signature can be faked, but everyone accepts that. For some reason, when you tack on the word "electronic", everyone suddenly seems to drop their guard and simply accept its authenticity as the gospel even though it's usually even LESS secure. Don't even get me started on "electronic voting"
If you mod me down, I shall become less powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Which, BTW, they do not. CC numbers are not stored after usage locally if you use an electronic means of verifying them. (As opposed to the carbon paper machine you sometimes see when the power is down.) The store cannot get to them. They are required to not store them as part of their contract with the CC company.
Now, the cashier could obviously write them down as you use them, but most of the time, the card barely leaves your hand. They don't have time to write anything down. And they could write it down completely independent of your license plate, I have no idea what the hell that has to do with anything.
If they actually had your CC numbers, they could easily copy your name at the same time and look up your address in the phone book and drive to your damn house and get your plate.
Not that I'm entirely sure how license plates relate to identity theft, unless you're worried about people buying insurance for your car. I've written my license plates down like five times in my entire life for other people, and it was always for a parking permit or buying insurance. License plates are not secret information, and no one uses to them to keep track of who is who, they use them to keep track of what car is allowed to be where, and they do that by actually looking at the plates.
And gas stations don't 'write down' your license plate unless they don't have video cameras aimed at cars, anyway. That's the only thing they care about, that they can track you if you drive off, and the plates are the easiest way to find that out.
Frankly, I'd rather be on tape that gets erased every 12 hours through reuse and is in a locked backroom that only managers can get to than have my number written down where every goober at the front has access to it and be social-engineered into giving it out.
There are exactly two circumstances that tape will get looked at: the request of law enforment, and if I drive off without paying. I don't do the second, and as for the first...well, I don't like it, but that's the way the world is, and it's not just gas stations. Outside gas stations cameras tend to be aimed where they can pick up license plates, though, and not people's faces, although those areas obviously overlap a bit.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Mine is usually "What is your password?" Its only come back to bite me in the ass once so far.
I'm going to try that tonight ...
"Your SSN number is not required for this service (because that would land us in jail), but without it we cannot process your application (meaning you don't get the service)."
-- . . ramblin' . . .
I don't know what's worse: That she thinks you don't trust her, that you gave her your **REAL** password to your stuff, or that you then went and changed it afterwards?!
Get your own free personal location tracker
Crobar, a giant club in Manhattan, does this. While I normally wouldn't have gone to a place like that, I was on the guest-list (read: free admission), and so I wasn't concerned at all when I handed them my license. Since then I've received numerous mailings from them. I wonder what else they're doing with my personal information.
What I've also heard since then, though I've not been able to confirm it, is that they use this information to keep track of you. If you start a problem and are kicked out of the club, it's an effective lifetime ban (though I'm not sure how they'll be able to scan your ID as they're kicking you out). Furthermore, they share this information with other clubs, so that if you start a problem in one place, you're essentially banned from every club in the area.
Never again will I allow my license to be electronically scanned. If every bar and club in town adopts this technology, I'll have to go back to drinking 40's on the stoop.
An effective signature identifies a particular user amongst a base of thousands.
an attractive female working for Marlboro... By the way - I don't even smoke cigarettes.
Guess what? According to the insurance companies across America, you are now a smoker. Did you read the fine print on the clipboard underneath the license scanner? It clearly stated that by accepting their cheap free gifts, you were claiming that you are a smoker. This survey wasn't just sold to some sleazy marketers, but was created by a company selling the data to insurance companies.
Next time you try to get a job, or the next time your employer tries to negotiate health insurance for its workforce, this little "fact" will come up. With companies in the U.S. now legally allowed to discriminate based on health claims, you will never be offered that perfect job you were the most qualified for. Your current employer will be faced with much larger insurance bill if they keep smokers on the payroll. You sold away your employability for a packet of smokes and a cheap lighter.
Recently on a trip to the U.S. with some tobacco-addicted cow-orkers, they were approached by a girl giving away a packet of smokes. Since she required a U.S. driving permit she could swipe through her machine, she wouldn't let them take her survey. She did admit that is was just to generate marketing leads, but she was supposed to target obvious smokers. She even admitted that the packets she gave away each day were different brands, purchased on an Indian Reservation, so it wasn't just a single tobacco company marketing their products. She did tell them where to find the closest Indian Reservation for tax free smokes, and they were way over the limit on the return journey.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Actually... in Colorado, anyone can by filling out a form with either a VIN or a license plate number, paying a small (~$10) fee and signing on the dotted line. How do I know? Personal experience. A private individual apparently saw a vehicle that I had traded in about 5 years ago, and wanted to purchase it. I received a letter in the mail from this person. He had written down the VIN, filled out a form, and received the title history - complete with names and addresses. (Sidebar - apparently the dealer never re-registered it and sold it at auction so I was the "last known owner"). Appalled, I called the DMV to find out how this happened! Indeed I found out that you too, for $10, a form and your signature can get all that info too.
The other day I went to see the movie and there was that stand in the middle of theater offering some credit card (I think citibank). 2-3 young females were approaching people asking to write an application where you should fill in your SSN. When I refused to give them my ssn and asked for some credentials other then name tags they were literally shocked. So was I...
www.ussearch.com and you'll be surprised how much of your private data is available for a few bucks..
;-)
American privacy laws and system to secure it, is a big joke.. they invented big brother.. and now they are using their diplomatic pressures (economic, political) to make us (in Europe) give up ours.. so that US government can have access to more info more easily than even our own government can on their own citizens, without proven suspicion.
See, our drivers licenses can't be scanned.. they contain no scannable info, and all info is stored seperately.
Infact, any company here that wishes to store private information (Such as a website even), must get a license, justifying the information they store and why they need it.. if they wish to store more information than they strictly need for their business, they are not allowed to..
And information is stored as distributed and as little central as possible..
Unfortunately, under pressure of the US, and lobbies in favor of them, I think we have come to the end of such protection. I believe privacy protection is actually a constitutional right here. Or was. And definitely should be.
We should always be in charge of our own information.. meaning, no company should be allowed to have information on us, without our permission, definitely not without us knowing it.
Law enforcement should, but their access to it should be protected in such manner that they can only access it when they can justify you're suspect.
Yes, it would make their work alot easier if they could track every single person and know everything about a person. But the price we have to pay for it is so huge, that privacy protection should way very very heavily in that trade off.
I mean, I much rather risk being killed in an unlikely terrorist attack, then to have a future where no man can have any privacy.. and for that reason, a career in politics or anything.. because no man is perfect, it gets easier all the time to dig up rare faults, to use against you.. for example if you were to run for president.
If you stole candy when you were 12, had a speeding ticket, or a fight.. and 30 years later, that will be used against you.. legally they will have nothing on you.. since you already paid for it, but in public opinion, you'll be doomed for life.
Grocery stores keep track of what you eat.. they can sell this to life insurance companies who may refuse you life insurance (over the phone) because they see you have an unhealthy diet..
Health care institutions may collect and sell your information to insurance companies who may deny you life insurance because they found that too many people in your family have died an eaerly death because of genetic illnesses. You may never know why they denied it.
The more they know about you, the weaker you are.. knowledge is power, and they know it, and most of us don't.. when they have more power, you are weaker in your position, as a consumer, as a citizen, as a competitor.
I really think by the time the public wakes up and realized this, it's too late.. it is important that alot of information never gets stored and fall in the hands of those who shouldn't have access to it.. to protect citizens and consumers. Your private information should be your property and you should have 'copyright' on it with a non-exclusive and limited right to government. We shouldn't become prisoners and cattle in some regime or industry. Digital information is very hard to get rid of.. easy to backup, leak, steal, transfer, copy, etc. it leaves trails everywhere.
Companies should not have the right to store private info on you without your permission or knowledge. Period.
Power to the people..
CC numbers are not stored after usage locally if you use an electronic means of verifying them. (As opposed to the carbon paper machine you sometimes see when the power is down.) The store cannot get to them. They are required to not store them as part of their contract with the CC company.
Some states require that only the last 4 digits show up on the receipt and a lot of merchants only print them. But they are there - even if you think they aren't they are. When a cardholder refutes a charge with Amex (for example) Amex asks for the entire, unobfuscated card number to verify that you charged the right person.