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Torn-up Credit Card Apps Not So Safe
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.
'Shouldn't' this be the companies problem? MCI decided years ago I owe them money, I don't, and every two years some collection agency comes calling.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
"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."
What, a machine opened the letter, recognized it was an application (and not, say, other junkmail that got stuffed into the nearest bulk reply envelope), fed it into a scanner, then trashed the hard copy? At no point in the process does a human see it? Sounds like bullshit.
He got the card in his own name, no actual fraud was comitted. This proof of concept only demonstrates that an actual fraudster could do exactly what he did.
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Buy a shredder. I shred every credit card offer and transfer check my current credit card company sends me. It's ridiculous the crap they send me. One of these days, a thief is going to raid my mailbox before I get home and get a credit card in my name. Oh well. At least I get to play Enron Executive with my niece.
Said it before, I'll say it again, I worry more about handing my card to the PFK at the corner gas station that about people going though my trash or grabbing my info off of the 'net.
Most of the fruad that I've suffered has been at the hands of large corporations that reckon that my lawyer won't be willing to take on their lawyer.
Three Squirrels
figures, considering they bitch at us to beef up our secuirty with them, and look at them! they dont even bother looking at our applications. THEY ARE THE SECUIRTY THREAT. they all need a huge smack on the head...
Why should I spend my money to solve a problem that some credit card company creates? Especially when I'm not even their freaking customer?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I don't know if these credit card companies are legally liable for this sort of identity theft, but they should be. If they are going to make money putting us all at risk for identity theft, they should pay for any damages we incure, including any inconvenience it causes us. Ditto for all these companies that collect data on us.
The losses will just be considered the cost of doing business and passed on to the consumer. At least until that cost becomes high enough that another company can undercut them by doing something about it without pissing off the consumer to much.
It might also be useful to have some sort of public scorecard for which companies have the highest incidence of identity theft, compromised data, etc. I recently received a notice from my bank that my account may have been compromised by an online retailer whose system was cracked - but they won't tell me who it was?!?! That disclosure should be MANDATORY so that maybe the cost to their business due to bad publicity & pissed off customers would make them take it more seriously.
Somehow, I don't see myself entering all my personal information into a website supposedly run by an organization I never heard of that has it's whois set up with a proxy service to boot. Anyone else rushing out to do this?
The point he was tyrying to make is that the standard advise of ripping up credit card offers is worthless if any random person can tape the pieces together and apply for credit in your name fraudulently. That's why he applied in his father's name - he put in a fradulent application and it was accepted.
I know I'm going to be more careful to shred them all, but if you still think it's useless, that's fine by me. Send all of your ripped up CC applications to me, and I'll dispose of them.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
That's why he applied in his father's name - he put in a fradulent application and it was accepted.
Nope, it's not quite that insane. He used his fathers address, but he used his own name (and presumably correct SS#). If you look close you can even see his name (Rob Cockerham) on the application. Learn to read more carefully next time, lest you miss-inform a huge number of people.
AccountKiller
Then let's see them put it back together...
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
I keep a copy of the 217 page Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 handy for this kind of thing. When I get a credit card offer, I print out a polite letter explaining that I must decline the card because of a lack of bankruptcy protection, and that I am including a copy of the legislation in case they have any questions. I cram it all into the business reply envelope. Unfortunately I have to print double sided or 4 sheets to a page but that envelope gets crammed pretty good- nice and heavy.
I met a guy with an even better idea. He has a home equity line of credit (HELOC). When a stupid credit card offer comes offering 0% interest, he pulls a couple grand out of the HELOC. Then he applies for the card and does a balance transfer from the new CC account to the HELOC. (Credit cards are too smart to just send you wads of cash when you apply, but they will give you the money if it's to pay another creditor- that's why he uses the HELOC, as an account to shift balances around.) If he gets the card and the transfer goes through, he puts the money in a CD earning 4.5% that matures when the card's introductory period expires.
Another thing some people do is to mix the shredded paper into their compost bin. It's as good as peat moss, and there have been a few studies showing that the bio effects of the ink are insignificant.
Some years ago, when I was in college, I lived in a 4-apartment building that had a coal furnace, but it would also burn paper. We put all our waste paper, including lots of computer output, into the furnace. It saved a significant amount in fuel costs. But the paper didn't burn as long as coal. A full load of coal would burn for two days, as I recall, but paper had to be refilled every day. The ash was about the same with both.
There's gotta be other good uses for paper that you don't want to send to the dump.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.