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Portrait of an Identity Thief
Ant writes to tell us that the New York Times has a closer look and an interview with an identity theft addict. From the article: "As far back as 2002, Mr. Sharma began picking the locks on consumer credit lines using a computer, the Internet and a deep understanding of online commerce, Internet security and simple human nature, obtained through years of trading insights with like-minded thieves in online forums. And he deployed the now-common rods and reels of data theft -- e-mail solicitations and phony Web sites -- that fleece the unwitting."
The reason most people don't do it is because they're honest and want to help out the human race instead of being a drain on society.
God spoke to me.
That is what worries Mr. Sharma's wife, Damaris, 21, who has no time for the Internet as she raises the couple's 1-year-old daughter, Bellamarie.
"I hate computers," she said. "I think they're the devil."
Sorry. I just thought that was funny, and had to post it.
Gamertag: WyleType
n/t
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Can anyone say... script kiddie?
The guy is clearly dumb as a rock. Who the hell takes a stolen credit card, buys stuff with it, and then has the stuff delivered to his doorstep???!!? I don't know jack about stealing identities, but this guy's MO is just plain stoopid.
Trust the mainstream media to make him sound like some kind of twisted, tortured genius.
What's this "identity theft addict" balonium? Do you call bank robbers "bank robbing addicts"? All bad behavior is not addiction. The guy is a lowlife crook who found an easy way to make money and kept coming back to it, plain and simple.
Viper is the preferred editor of the Emacs operating system.
The banking industry as well as Congress and just about every commerce site out there is just drooling to get their hands on a REAL identity thief. The "example" they make of them should be grand! I can just see it....Nothing left but a smoking boot!
B.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
Did anyone else find this guys total lack of remorse in his actions a little...well...wrong!
Not to mention this quote
which implies that if it wasn't hard to get back in to he might consider it.
What an ass!
Anonymity of the internet is responsible for the views expressed in my post.
Are we offshoring identity theft to India too?
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
Fraud |= theft. In plain English, fraud does not equal theft.
It's the same as the copyright argument. You cannot steal someone's identity. You can use it frauduantly. You can pose as someone you are not. You can give false witness. But identity fraud ISN'T!
Libertas in infinitum
...is with the absence of any sense of responsibility for the consequences.
"It's an addiction, no doubt about that," said Mr. Sharma
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
They get paid no matter what.
The only people who suffer are the retailers who sold the stuff and who now get hit with a chargeback so they're out the money AND the product
And the guy who got his number stolen.
If the banks had to pay even 10% of the annual loss due to fraud, they'd be clamping down on EVERYTHING you did with your credit cards.
Congress will like it because it gives them something that they can claim they are doing something about. But, in the end, they'll do nothing.
It all comes down to WHO has to pay for these crimes. And the banks have made sure that it won't be them.
On the whole, we seem to be slowly moving from a "govern thyself" to a "If no-ones watching, why not?" frame of mind.
I wonder if this is almost being encouraged by the powers that be as it fosters a feeling that it's ok for them to be watching because I no longer expect the others around me to be governing their own behavior...
--- I've completed diagnosis of your problem and can classify it as a YOYO...You're On Your Own
People really should listen to their gut instinct when the red flags go up....
Look it up in your gut
Unfortunatly, most people's gut instinct is "OOO! Money!!" Greed and selfishness are the basest of all human vices, especially in a capitalist society. As long as people want a quick buck, people will be getting ripped off.
True, but check TFA. The email scam referred to was only one of his early efforts. His later (and more lucrative) scams involved buying numbers and doing direct financial transfers from those accounts. One of my accounts had something similar happen to it. It was only due to the fact that the individual responsible had used two smaller charges the previous day, and it happend to be the day that I was paying bills and saw the two fradulent charges during an online reconciliation that I discovered it and was able to cancel the transfer. I'm starting to think that the entire credit card system is broken. It is just far too easy to obtain stolen numbers, and far to easy to negotiate into goods or (as above) cash. That cards can still be used for wire transfers absolutely boggles my mind. Unfortunately, I don't know of any better system. Right now I use "disposable" numbers as often as I can when doing ecommerce. They minimize (but do not elminate) the risk, but they can't be used for recurring charges, and relatively few card issuers. I'm thinking that the penalities here are too light. This guy was involved in grand larceny, easily more than $200k. Why only a couple of years? Small time drug dealers (an offense with far less of a victim) get many times that penality. When the takings are so lucrative, the chances of being caught low, and the penalities light, its no wonder this is such a fast growing crime. Why perform an armed bank robccbery (average take, about $4,000 per the FBI) and get 20 years if you get caught when credit card fraud ($10k per theft) only will get you 2? And did you notice that some of his biggest takes were when he was under indictment and out on bail? WTF?
could you put another metaphor or two in the summary so that its really spelled out...
I forgot he did that skit...lol...
"Colbert Report: Truthiness Anyone can read the news to you. Stephen promises to feel the news at you."
B.
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The problem is, is that many people don't have a gut instinct about this kind of situation. There's 2 kinds of gut instincts that people can get. 1 is built in by evolution. After millions of years, the human body is wired to react certain ways to certain stimuli. This is stuff like being scared when you are approached by a tiger. The second kind is that built from prior experiences in your lifetime. If you grow up with no exposure to computers, a web site that asks for all this information may very well seem like a valid site. Why not, you get letters in the mail offering you credit cards, where they ask your DOB, SSN, Mother's Maiden Name, Other Credit Card Numbers, and all in the same application. Why wouldn't a web site be able to ask for the same information.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Even for wire-transfers with a credit card. Simply have the bank call the phone numbers they have on record for you and have you press a button sequence to authorize the purchase or wire-transfer.
... and re-route the phone system.
... but the more steps that it takes, the more likely it is that the thief will fail to complete it. And the easier it will be to track him. Although it can't get much easier than tracking this punk. He gave them his address to deliver his stolen purchases to.
The banks already have the systems to do automated calling.
The banks already have your phone numbers. And your mailing address.
Now the thief has to steal your credit card numbers
Or steal the numbers and fake your ID and go to a bank branch and change the phone numbers.
All of that is possible for a thief to do
But doing that would move the risk and costs to the banks. They prefer it the way it currently is because the banks aren't losing money on these fraud cases.
There probably are bank robbers who are addicted to what they do. The concept of "addiction" is just a model for understanding destructive behavior. It's not an attempt to excuse it. In fact, the opposite is true: people who are fighting addiction, and the people who help them (often addicts themselves) will tell you that the worst thing you can do for an addict is overlook his or her misdeeds.
Stories like this really irk me, and show how the industry wants to make the notion of identity theft much scarier than it really is. This is an example of an "identity thief?" This moron used stolen credit cards and shipped the crap to his parents' house where he lived. He's an idiot. Other people with common sense wouldn't do stupid shit like what he was doing. There's no skill involved in what he did. Any waiter or someone who handles credit cards on a daily basis could do the same thing, but they don't because they're not idiots like this guy.
In the end, anybody he ripped off probably didn't have to pay, so it was the merchants that got screwed if anybody, and this is becoming harder and harder to pull off.
If there's one thing this article does point out, it's that if the feds really want to stop identity theft damages, they'd shut down Western Union. That money transfer service pretty much solely exists now to play a party to scams of this nature.
Why only a couple of years? Small time drug dealers (an offense with far less of a victim) get many times that penality. When the takings are so lucrative, the chances of being caught low, and the penalities light, its no wonder this is such a fast growing crime. Why perform an armed bank robccbery (average take, about $4,000 per the FBI) and get 20 years if you get caught when credit card fraud ($10k per theft) only will get you 2.
First of all, they haven't started a war on identity theft yet, so until they do, drugs is the trump card. There is nothing worse than drugs, because there is a war against it. Well, there's terrorism, but there's a war against that too. Really, depending on the level of you drug dealing, it can be just as bad as terrorism in terms of repercussions. And second of all, being armed is also a trump card. You have the right to bear arms, but you'd better not use those arms to commit a crime. Anything armed automatically quadruples your sentence. If you can manage to rob a bank unarmed, then you'll probably only get 2 years.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
As I posted in another related story, if you ever suspect (or know) you've been the victim of Identity Theft, here's what to do:
Contact the credit agency of your choice to put a fraud watch on your file. The agency you contact will notify the other two for you.
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
Its also a good idea to call 1-888-5OPTOUT to prevent banks, insurance companies, and those pesky fakers (remember the ChoicePoint fiasco) from getting ahold of your credit report. All 3 agencies use that same number for the opt out process. That should significantly cut down on those pre-approved credit card offers you get in the mail that can be stolen and used in your name as well.
And for the Active Duty members in the crowd that happen to be TDY, you should consider getting an Active Duty military alert placed in your name in addition to a fraud alert. You can never be too safe when it comes to preventing ID theft. However, no matter what you do there's still no guarantee you won't fall victim to the random oddity that can occur (such as a bartender swiping your card # and going nuts on Amazon).
For more info on how to minimize the risks of ID theft, or how to recover from it, check out the FTC's website at www.ftc.gov/idtheft
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
Do you mean to imply that people are blind and deaf about identity theft with as much press as it has been getting? I know the American attention span is about that of a retarded gnat, but I didn't think it was so short as to be non-existant. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out when you are being scammed INCLUDING those credit card offers....
B.
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You have the right to bear arms, but you'd better not use those arms to commit a crime. Anything armed automatically quadruples your sentence. If you can manage to rob a bank unarmed, then you'll probably only get 2 years.
If the people you are robbing believe that you're armed, you have just committed armed robbery. Even if you have no weapon.
People who use plastic guns or a banana in the pocket are armed robbers.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Merriam Websters defines theft as: "the act of stealing; specifically : the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it"
When you use someone else's identity in a fraudulent manner, the original person STILL HAS THEIR IDENTITY!!! It is NOT THEFT, because you have not taken anything from them, they are deprived of nothing (except maybe some abstract type of sovereign individualism). But you are using their identity, and so are they!
I think the fundamental issue here is that information, once in the open, logically belongs to no one nor can it really be 'possessed'.
Libertas in infinitum
Oh come on! Do you seriously think that that's his real name?
--MarkusQ
TFA in case anyone else is having trouble with access:
July 4, 2006
Stolen Lives
Identity Thief Finds Easy Money Hard to Resist
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
By the time of Shiva Brent Sharma's third arrest for identity theft, at the age of 20, he had taken in well over $150,000 in cash and merchandise in his brief career. After a certain point, investigators stopped counting.
The biggest money was coming in at the end, postal inspectors said, after Mr. Sharma had figured out how to buy access to stolen credit card accounts online, change the cardholder information and reliably wire money to himself -- sometimes using false identities for which he had created pristine driver's licenses.
But Mr. Sharma, now 22, says he never really kept track of his earnings.
"I don't know how much I made altogether, but the most I ever made in a quick period was like $20,000 in a day and a half or something," he said, sitting in the empty meeting hall at the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y., where he is serving a two- to four-year term. "Working like three hours today, three hours tomorrow -- $20,000."
And once he knew what he was doing, it was all too easy.
"It's an addiction, no doubt about that," said Mr. Sharma, who inflected his words with the sort of street cadence adopted by smart kids trying to be cool. "I get scared that when I get out, I might have a problem and relapse because it would be so easy to take $300 and turn it into several thousand."
That ease accounts for the sizable ranks of identity-fraud victims, whose acquaintance with the crime often begins with unexplained credit card charges, a drained bank account or worse. The victims' tales have become alarmingly familiar, but usually lack a protagonist -- the perpetrator. Mr. Sharma's account of his own exploits provides the missing piece: an insight into both the tools and the motivation of a persistent thief.
Identity theft can, of course, have its origins in a pilfered wallet or an emptied mailbox. But for computer-savvy thieves like Mr. Sharma, the Internet has forged new conduits for the crime, both as a means of stealing identity and account information and as the place to use it.
The Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have invested millions of dollars in monitoring Internet sites where thousands of users from around the world congregate to swap tips about identity theft and to buy and sell personal data. Mr. Sharma frequented such sites from their earliest days, and the techniques he learned there have become textbook-variety scams.
"Shiva Sharma was probably one of the first, and he was certainly one of the first to get caught," said Diane M. Peress, a former Queens County prosecutor who handled all three of Mr. Sharma's cases and who is now the chief of economic crimes with the Nassau County district attorney's office. "But the kinds of methods that he used are being used all the time."
As far back as 2002, Mr. Sharma began picking the locks on consumer credit lines using a computer, the Internet and a deep understanding of online commerce, Internet security and simple human nature, obtained through years of trading insights with like-minded thieves in online forums. And he deployed the now-common rods and reels of data theft -- e-mail solicitations and phony Web sites -- that fleece the unwitting.
Much of this unfolded from the basement of a middle-class family home in Richmond Hill, Queens, at the hands of a high school student with a knack for problem solving and an inability, even after multiple arrests, to resist the challenge of making a scheme pay off.
That is what worries Mr. Sharma's wife, Damaris, 21, who has no time for the Internet as she raises the couple's 1-year-old daughter, Bellamarie.
"I hate computers," she said. "I think they're the devil."
A Thief's Tool Kit
Mr. Sharma is soft-spoken, but he does not shrink from the spotlight. He gained fleeting attention after his first arrest, as the first person
United Way, The Smith Family, Medecin Sans Frontieres, Oxfam, Starlight foundation, etc etc. If you weren't just trolling, have a look here http://www.secularhumanism.org/ for an insight into compassion in secular society.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
As a European I still found amazing that you can "steal" someone else's identity by just getting his name and a social security number...
:) And knows what? Normal payment cards are more secure because we use a Chip and a PIN code so you can't duplicate the magnetic stripe in 15 seconds...
:)
In Europe, if you want to open a bank account, apply for a credit card, or any other credit you MUST show your ID in person (you know those ID cards that scare you...). The only thing that's really insecure are credit cards, but payments with your mere number over 100 euros are reimbursed if there's a fraud, which is quite easy to prove when the delivery address is not yours
Ok it's not perfect, but you'll never hear about someone getting strip of his money because he gave his name and a funny number to someone. Good old Europe
Poor little addict - and a pock marked one at that.
But really. The only realistic soultion is to put these guys under a strict regime - like for Kevin Mitnick - and then really watch him.
End
1260 divided by the weight of the problem equals the length of the solution.
Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you just glad to rob me?
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
It ain't pretty? It doesn't seem so horrible.
Think about it -- if most people actually enjoyed living in a dog-eat-dog world, that is exactly how we would all be living. Sure, we all have urges to take the shortcut to success by just taking what that other guy already has. But we hate being "that other guy" so much that it pushes things back in a sane direction.
I am just so un-hip - whos this supposed to be?
Are you sure those are actually atheist, espousing a belief that there is no god, and not just non-religious?
"Addict" is not what you call someone who commits crimes repeatedly. Appropriate terms are "recidivist", "repeat offender", and hopefully some day, "lifer."
I am bloody tired of people tossing off a word like "addict" to describe someone who's just a goddamned crook.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I'm from EU. I don't understand how this identity theft works.
Can somebody explain what's this all about?
I could post my email address, real name, phone #,bank account # and national id # here,
why should i be worried if i do?
The article appears to have been written by an semi-literate teenager.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
United Way? Doctors Without Borders? Oxfam? They may be formally areligious (without religion) but they are hardly athiest (promoting a belief system without a God). These organizations work side-by-side with Christians and other religious organizations on a regular basis. I work for an international secular organization similar to Oxfam, and there are quite a few athiests among the employees, but there are also a significant number of believers in Christianity, Islam, Judiasm and a few other religions.
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Re: Say someone came to your home, took your face, robbed you of your fingerprints, and any other identifying marks on your person.
You mean with a hobby knife or something? Like the Slitheen? I guess it's possible, but identity fraud using copied personal details sounds less messy.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
Many secular (and protestant) charities support Catholic charities.
It doesn't mean there's a hidden agenda. It merely reflects the fact that catholic charities and churches can be found in many places where it would be too expensive, dangerous, or impractical to set up another office.
If the purpose is the same, and someone else already has the infrastructure in place, it doesn't make much sense to spend money building a duplicate of that infrastructure.
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
"Mama says computers are the devil."
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
It looks just like me!!!
A quick bit of advice for those "armed" robbers. If you commit your robberies on a hot summer day, your pocket will get really messy! Especially if your "gun" wasn't green when you got it from the supermarket.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
When one watches a magic show it's easy to see; people pay money to get fooled. Apperently people like to be fooled a bit (people don't seu a magic artist). I think lot's of people behave like a mass, in way cows follow a leader.
:
And that's quite dangerous, there should be a constant allert and investigation of public resources who use the internet. For example how safe is money transfer over the internet?. You think it's safe, as your sure inteligence serivices never cracked a root certificate from for example verisign? (and if they do this who else might do that)
Perhaps it's time to create a seccond internet, one which is not anonymous but registrated by owner by IP (using IP6) it would have some impact sure, but how lang can the internet be a wild west place? Tough good thoughts should be given to privacy, a goverment tracing your data isn't also what people want. Today we pay for the internet, so the current internet is in a way our freedom place and no one realy owns it.
This seccond internet could be funded by banks and various bussiness, who want to asure the creditability of their secured connections with you the consumer. Perhaps more seperated nets will become a reality as
- who want's his six year old kid to be able to watch the current pornbased-internet?
- Perhaps goverments should go on their own on the internet (to protect your privacy).
- Perhaps insurance companies should have their own net toe (to protect your privacy).
Well it's hard to imagine that the internet will noy evolve in about a 50 years to deal with these kind of wild west problems. As for sure we will see quantum computer in this time frame (being able to crack verisign keys in a few secconds...)
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.
Too many people put give their Credit Cards numbers out to anybody. It seems like these fly-by-night online shops are a breeding ground for identity theft. They should ask you, "Would you like us to keep your credit card in our vulnerable database in plain-text, so that the next time you return, we'll have it on file?". [x] nail here for new monitor!
http://www.thirdrake.com - Best Webcomic of all time.
so basically this guy is one of those persons that send me the "please reactivate your account" spam mails?
United Way (in general) supports Catholic Charities.
The United Way of the Greater Winona [MN] Area supports two Boy Scout councils.
The United Way of Central Ohio supports the Simon Kenton Boy Scout Council.
I've got to leap to the defense of the scouts. While it is true that the scouts do not allow homosexual leaders, it is more of a political decision than a bigotted one - they would lose too much money and membership if they were to allow it than if they maintain their current policies. And while the majority of the US membership is Chrisitan, the scouts have specific awards set up for more faiths than you can imagine: from Bhuddist to B'hai, Jewish, Taoist, Muslim...you name it, they are inclusive of it. You can be a satanist and be a Boy Scout, just not an atheist (as established by court case law).
Speaking as a second generation Eagle Scout, Cub Scout leader, supporter of PFLAG, and non-Christian.
The New Scientist has an article http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9469-dodging -punishment-may-be-its-own-reward.html about how in some who have brain damage, getting away with a crime is as good as being rewarded for good behavior. This could be part of the "addiction".
This doesn't necessarily completely contradict the GP's point. They can still be charged with armed robbery, but it is often a mitigating factor when it comes to sentencing, and an unarmed 'armed robber' may get a sentence as light as a year or two when parole is said and done, or less if it's a first time offense.
Instead of (or at least in addition to) writing about one phisher, it would be interesting to know what the odds are for identity thefts. Are almost all cases based on "reactivate your account" mails? How often are working keyboard sniffers installed and used? Does anyone really have to worry about remote surveillance of screens through windows and across streets, or is it just a theoretical thought experiment, which never is used?
It's not possible. Cleveland doesn't really exist. That area you see on the map is not land, but is actually part of the Great Lakes. Putting "Cleveland" there was all part of an elaborate joke that George Washington played on General Cornwallis.
Similar to the upcoming US election results
Gates Foundation, and Warren Buffett.
"Only in the USA is a person's religion significant."
I beg to differ - look at Northern Ireland, the Balkan States, etc. One's religion in those States makes a great deal of difference! It can even get you killed! My wife is German, and even though there are just two religions that most Germans belong to (Catholic or Evangalish {sp}), there are still hard feelings between the two sides - even tho the Hundred Years war was fought centuries ago. Memories in Europe are long, and hard feelings over religious disagreements run deep! Look at England just two hundred years ago, Catholics and others that were not Anglican were terribly set upon. You cannot tell me that those feelings have dissapated in that short period of time.
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash." Notebooks of Lazarus Long, Robert A. Heinlein
What's your point? I'm atheist and work side-by-side with Christians and other religions too. Somehow, I'm still atheist.
As a republican I feel it my responsibity to manufacture criminals. People need punished!
While I agree that opening of scout leaders to homosexuals will result in a huge loss of money and membership to the organization, that does not make their decision moral or just. IMHO what is economically most viable for them is not the RIGHT thing to do. This to me sounds like "let's not recall the product, it'll cost too much!" type of thinking.
Anyway, a publicly stated policy has abolutely no relation to how things are enforced. No one's private lives are investigated in the scouts. A homesexual leader in many cases can (and has) been tolerated by their unit, as long as he remains discreet. A complaint would have to be filed with the council, and the leader would have to admit to being homosexual before any action would be taken. A simple denial in most cases shuts the process down.
This recent book claims about 4% of the population has absolutely no concern or empathy for anyone else and comprises a large fraction of criminals.
Even if just some of them are smart enough to scam people, thats enough to cause
significant crime.
The only people who are really hurt by this are the huge corporations. Sure, the individual consumer victims face a great deal of aggravation, but they get their money back in the end. The banks, though, end up eating it. For all of their crowing about the losses, it probably amounts to about what the CEO routinely spends on lunch and nose candy.
A good flogging, followed by time in the public stocks-- say, a week or two.
Per incident.
Oddly enough, that's the same punsihment I'd recommend for the purely criminal activity of the same sort.
I'm gonna be modded Troll for this, but here we go anyhow.
United way is not a charity.
Oh sure, they may be listed as one and have all the benefits, but they do not help people.
Their function is to collect money and give it to real charities. They never, ever directly help people.
On top of that, they don't give all that money to the charities. They use 8% of it for their paychecks and literature. (This number could be wrong. They apparently don't advertise it anymore as anyone with a brain can figure out that anything above 0% is BAD. They used to advertise that most charities use 15% of the income for administrative expenses, but UW only used 8%. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that's about 23% total, if you give to UW instead of directly to the charity.)
I'm not denying that UW has probably done some good somewhere. It just isn't nearly the sparkling ivory tower they want you to beleive. Add in the insane pressure they put on businesses and employees to donate, even if they don't have money... It's just wrong.
A prior co-worker of mine pledged quite a bit more money per month than she could afford because she felt she had to. She was almost in tears trying to figure out what she was going to do. It took me almost 30 minutes to convince her that she not only didn't have to give, but that she could go to the store manager and recind her pledge and nothing bad would happen to her. This was the worst I'd seen, but it wasn't the only instance of people giving money when they shouldn't be.
That same company I worked for required the store manager to give a certain portion of his paycheck to UW. They were rich, greedy bastards and I didn't mind that, but the mindset is totally wrong. UW should never have such a stranglehold on a company that such a thing can be possible.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
I'm from EU. I don't understand how this identity theft works. [...]
I could post my email address, real name, phone #,bank account # and national id # here, why should i be worried if i do?
So, just out of curiousity, why don't you go ahead and do it?
Spoken like a true patriot. It's hard to love, support, and defend one's country in these times.
What patriot would not read this and weep: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Patriot_Act
Funny? I wish the moderators would stop sniffing glue.
It is so easy to avoid getting pownd by id bandits. Don't pay your student loans for 2 years. Nobody on earth will give you a penny of credit. Problem solved.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Identity Theft Addict
What is this? It makes him sound like he's some kind of a victim in all of this, that he can't help helping himself to other people's money because he has a psychological dependence upon our dough. So, what, what should sympathize with this person while he's transferring our money out of the country? Political correctness will be the death of us all.
I'm sorry, but he's a goddamn criminal, that's what he is. Call him whatever you want but he's still a felon. To paraphrase Shakespeare, "A pile of Bantha poo-doo by any other name would smell as bad."
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
While individual Christians, Muslims, etc., frequently work side-by-side with non-religious people, it's less true on an organizational level. A pro-religious organization very rarely works with an anti-religious organization. So if very religious organizations work with Oxfom (for example) you can be pretty sure that Oxfam is not anti-religious. It may be secular but it is not atheist. Which are you?
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Cleveland does exist...they just want you to think it's underwater because that's where the Stargate is.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
I think you'll find that this situation affects a goodly portion of the human race at various given times. You also counter your own point, as in the situation described - despite racing adrenalin etc - you were able to counter and suppress your irrational feelings.
The point of the story was that I was scared later on, remembering that if it were any stronger, I would not have been able to suppress it. Also, being the ever-loving fuck out of someone who's messing with you, in stone age times, at least, was an excellent tactic for discouraging people from messing with you.
Humans will at some times be subject to strong, irrational feelings, but the point is that losing control of them is not justified by defining them as "illness." If one feels a strong sexual urge when seeing a woman in a tight dress, does that mean that one can flout responsibility and ravish her?
When people are put under the influence of mind altering chemicals, they do exactly that type of thing. If someone injected you with a ton of cocaine (without you asking) do you think you should be held responsible for what happened afterwards? These kinds of internal chemical triggers are no different than that - you didn't ask for them, they are just there.
I know and have known quite a few people who could be described as having this so-called IED, hell I can myself think of many occasions where my temper has flared way to hot and way to sudden for a warranted occasion. However, the point is that the "mental illness" tag is being used as a "get out of jail free card." People are no longer held responsible for their actions.
Well if you go too far with the whole mental illness thing, yes that's a problem. I've known many people with bona-fide mental issues and while they are wonderful people, it has a crippling impact on their life. They are intelligent and successful, but not happy and often don't fit in socially because of it. One of my closest friends is obsessive compulsive, for instance, how is someone supposed to take responsibility for that. He didn't do anything (that we know of) to cause it, and doesnt' want to be that way, but there he is.
There are mitigating circumstances to any situation, but simply stating that you "get mad easily" is not a reason enough for destructive behavior. In knowing you have such a problem, you should also take steps to control said problem, and not flout responsibility be declaring that you are not responsible for your actions due to poor mental health. If you have a temper problem, a shrink may be a medically valid solution, that I don't argue, but it doesn't mean that with or without one this so-called IED is an excuse for the behavior it is being used to cover.
I think the problem with this discussion is that people like you trivialize the internal processes going on in these people. There's a difference between being simply angry "Wtf why did you eat my sandwich while I was gone" and being totally enraged "you just threatened my life and I'm going to defend myself, even if it means killing you". There's a complete spectrum there, and your choice of language shows that you are not appreciating this distinction. As my post said, who knows who actually has this IED thing, but I do know that rage can be a problem for some people, not because they dont' care, but because it's a natural part of being human that some people get too much of, and because our society expects everyone (no matter how different) to follow the same fucking rules.
I have a brain. I also have a heart. Combined, they are what help me realize that charities need to employ a staff, and that staff needs to be paid (lest they also become charity cases). You're claim that "anything above 0% is bad," is ridiculous.
If you're interested in getting the overhead number closer to 0%, volunteer for a charitable organization (though no sizable charity can run on volunteers alone). Encourage your company to donate valuable supplies or services (advertising, printing, web design or hosting, etc.) to charity. But just because the charity has a non-zero overhead doesn't mean it's bad. It means it and its staff are doing their job to reach out and help the community.
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
Real charities will have overhead. I'm not arguing against their '15%' overhead as UW states they average.
I'm arguing against UW's overhead. They aren't a charity. They do not help people. They only give money to the other charities. If you don't believe me, go ask them for help. They will (kindly) direct you to find a real charity. (The local one here doesn't even help you find that charity. They just tell you to go find it yourself. I know. My sister needed help and my mother tried. In the end, we were forced to get through it in-family in the end, as there were no organizations willing to help in our area.)
They take 8% off the top and then give the money to a real charity. This is the % that should be 0%, not the % used by the real charities.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
According to the United Way of America's 990 form they usally charge 15% for administration but for major events they will drop that fee; so for 2005 thier costs where Programs: 88.13% Fund Raising: 1.02% Administrative: 10.83%.
As opposed to something like the Union of Concerned Scientists, which pushes for the the widespread use of tire such as the ones that lead to 148 deaths and more than 500 injuries, does Programs: 78.67% Fund Raising: 14.84% Administrative: 6.47%
First of all, they could sue me for the money. They would certainly lose their suit, but it would cost me money to defend.
But more importantly, and what the credit card company would do in practice, is report "my" debt (really the id thief's debt) to the three credit reporting agencies. These agencies are private companies and, as such, can't force me to pay anyone anything. However, in practice, I could not get a mortgage, a car loan, a credit card, etc., if it shows up on my credit report that I owe some credit card company money. So while I'm not strictly required to pay a debt just because it appears on my credit report, it's a real financial problem for me if that unpaid collection item appears on my credit report.
Unfortunately, getting fraudulent activity removed from your credit report is a royal pain. When my identity was stolen a few years ago, I had only two fraudulent items appear on my report. It took about 30-40 hours of my time over a period of 6 months in order to get it resolved. What if I needed to move during that 6 months and take out a mortgage? I'd have been out of luck.
Also, it was a pain because up until the moment the company who loaned money to the id thief admitted that they screwed up, they treated me like I was the one who just didn't want to pay my debts. These companies were extremely rude and unhelpful to me, and tried to make it as difficult and slow a process as possible to "prove my innocence".
If someone asked me to fix the situation, I would do the following:
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent