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Torn-up Credit Card Apps Not So Safe

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the big-shocker-here dept.

Maximum Prophet writes "This dude tears up a credit card application, tapes it back together, sends it in with his cell phone number and father's address, and voila, gets a credit card. Who would have thought security at a credit card company was so lax? The company recommends that consumers "tear up" financial solicitations before throwing them away, "so thieves can't use them to assume your identity.", but according to them, "Applications that arrive in damaged form are customarily transferred to an electronic format, he said -- often by machine. So it's possible a human being never handled the taped-up application and never had the chance to spot the obvious sign of trouble." In this era where we worry so much about identity theft, this sort of thing really makes you wonder what the point really is.

3 of 470 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And the point is...... by chengmi · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    "forgot"... sure...

  2. Re:And the point is...... by dotgain · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    How, exactly, did it suddenly occur to you that you forgot to sign it when you saw the cheque was cashed? Surely, when you say you forgot to sign it, you in fact wilfully left your signature off, and were surprised when you found the cheque got honoured.

  3. Re:whose fault by InsertCleverUsername · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    The reason they get away with it is because people like you preach hopelessness and people don't fight back, so it's easy to do.
    Listen... I don't know you and you don't know me. Please, SHUT THE FUCK UP. If you had ANY idea how many letters I wrote, how many phone calls, the nights of sleeplessness, the wrangling with my lawyer! I've got a credit score in the high 700s. Trust me, I know how to manage these things.

    I have successfully fought several erroneous charges on my credit cards. That, as you say, is easy. This wasn't like that (you annoying fucking moron!) --it was identity theft and the credit card company didn't want to see it my way. This was ten years ago, before the problem was common or easy to deal with.

    Have you been the victim of identity theft? O.K. Then SHUT THE FUCK UP.

    </flame>
    --
    Ask me about my sig!