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An 'Ethical Hacker' On Protecting Your Identity
qwqwss writes "Canada.com is running an article by Terry Cutler, a 'certified Ethical Hacker', who wants to get the word out to people on protecting their identities from a growing number of risks. The piece covers shopping online, keeping your personal information contained, and avenues of inquiry if your identity is stolen."
Seriously, it is so bogus that in order to "opt out" you have to hand over your personal info -- SSN, address, full name - to the very same people who are abusing that info in the first place. Somehow I just don't trust them to keep it safe and never figure out a new way to abuse it for their own gain.
A real opt-out list would be maintained by a 3rd party with contractual and legal penalties for distributing your personal info. Then the agencies would be required send their lists to the 3rd who would filter out the people who have opted out. That way, even if the agencies were to reverse engineer the list by comparing before-and-afters, they would not know anything about the people whom they missed because they were never on the first list, nor would they get any sort of corrective information (like updated address, corrected spelling of names, etc).
Hell, while I am dreaming, these lists would be opt-in to start with and we wouldn't have these problems.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
That's what I did. Now if some joker gets my numbers, I can simply dump the card and get a new prepaid Master Card. Pfffft, eat that h4xx0rz! ;-)
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I'm glad people already modded this informative (I guess that's a no-brainer), as I just used my last mod point prior to reading this. I just wanted to say "thanks", as a lot of the sites that claim to offer this info. tend to require enrollment in some program that I have no interest in... and I never actually think of looking this stuff up, at least not when I am near a computer...
To those who haven't checked out this site: no matter the outcome, it's ~10 minutes very well spent. Check it out.
Some banks allow users to generate virtual credit card numbers (that can have dollar limits and specific expiration dates) for use with online purchases. Probably not a bad idea to buy things online with one of these generated online numbers (using the purchase amount as the limit).
Well I certainly hope your real name isn't "mangu", and that your CC number is different from 126918.
The reason the Anonymous are cowardly is because they refuse to show even their funny little cyber-nicknames when they post vitriolic comments. They don't want to be known because they usually know they are wrong, and will lose karma. Some cowards are very funny however and get modded up considerably. I suspect taco and others post anonymously, don't you?
Let's be honest. "Identity theft" is only about the precious "credit rating". "Credit ratings" are useful, true, but they're waaaay overused, primarily because people tend to live faaar beyond their means. A credit rating can only be held over your head if you insist on living on credit. The simple fact of the matter is that by avoiding using credit you don't really have to worry about "identity theft", one of the Big Three screwing up, and you don't have Big Brother watching your every move. People use credit so much that a person's credit rating has become the equivalent of "be good, or it goes on your PERMANENT RECORD" from grade school. It's been an adjustment, but I'm both personally, and business-wise (I own my own business) completely debt-free, and I intend to stay that way.
In fact, I had a company (BellSouth Advertising) screw up my business listing badly last year. They published my store hours saying that we were closed a day that we're not. I never signed off on that ad. As a result, business is slower that day. Of course, BellSouth Advertising is giving me some bullshit about "you signed off on the previous year, and it says in fine print that if you don't sign off for the next year, that we can still bill you, blah, blah, blah". I told them that I don't pay for anything that I don't agree to, and I certainly won't pay for an ad that hurts my business. They call every few days, and all they can threaten me with is that they'll ding my credit rating. I just smile and say, "that's fine. I'm still not paying."
That's REAL freedom. I'm not beholden to ANYBODY, from a financial standpoint. How many people in the US today can say that they're financially free?
Sure, it's great if you can live without credit and get by.... But I occasionally run into someone just like yourself, preaching that the "rest of us" need to stop using credit and achieve "financial freedom" (or some variation on that theme). EG. One of my former bosses that I do some computer work for got that same lecture from his bookkeeper a few months ago. (He was upset that a few incorrect things on his credit report, plus an ex-employee mishandling some bills caused his credit score to drop too low to get a home loan he was seeking for a new investment property.)
I didn't get in the middle of that particular argument -- but if it was me, I would have told the bookkeeper to shut her trap. The fact is, she was only able to live "credit/debt free" because her husband happened to have a really good paying job - and her salary was just "play money" for them.
Credit scores *are* important, if only because a smart individual has more options with a good credit score. Credit is simply a tool, and it can be used well or improperly. But without a decent credit score, you've lost access to that "tool" completely.
People like my former boss leverage their credit to make purchases that help them generate positive cash flow. (He rents out houses after buying them when he sees a good deal on one.)
In circumstances like your ordeal with BellSouth, I can sympathize - except it's a smarter thing to attack the problem directly, rather than just ignore it and let them damage your credit. If you didn't sign their agreement, you have a great lawsuit right there. Force them to produce the paperwork in court, or else they have to release you from the contract (and you could probably claim damages too, and recoup some of those lossses from the lost business due to their errors!).
I think you misinterpret "financial freedom" to an extent.... I'd say financial freedom is the ability to buy anything you want or need, when you want or need it. If you're a Bill Gates, you're there already and the "credit tool" is irrelevant. But most of us don't have that kind of cash in the bank.
but sometimes one wants to make a controversial argument without disturbing our very anonymous little cyber-nickname.
:D
Ah but you see, that's exactly what cowardice is
I got all of my reports except Equifax. The whole process fails when I get to them. Does this happen to anyone else. I think out of all the credit reporting agencies this one is the most difficult to deal with.
Of the three major credit report agencies, Equifax is the worst. Especially if you're trying to clean up your credit reports. Even if they're supposed to investigate and delete bad info if they ever get around to it they drag their feet to investigate. They're also supposed to allow you to write a letter to be attached to the report but they loose these. Because they're so bad it's a wonder why anyone would use them.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I've been told that checking your report that often is actually a red flag and a detriment to your credit rating. I assume this isn't true; anyone know for sure?
There may be others that also issue the certification, but I earned mine from the EC Council. Web site is at http://www.eccouncil.org/.
People call BECAUSE those agencies have the information and have been selling it. So it is information they already have.
No, you are wrong.
I use a bogus name for my telephone directory listing (it is like getting an unlisted number, but better because it is free and it avoids having my real name on the "list of people with unlisted numbers"). I get tons of snail-mail marketing for this bogus person, I also get plenty of sales calls asking for this bogus person by name.
There is no way the credit marketing agencies are giving away this info because this person does not exist and the name was made up on the spot for the telephone listing - they certainly have no SSN and my real name is the one used for the bills so there isn't even any "credit history" to the name.
So you see, you are 100% demonstrably incorrect in saying that the sales contacts are due only to the credit marketing agencies. Even if this bogus person somehow did aqcuire an entry in their databases, there is no way for me to remove them because the person has no SSN to give them.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I've done that [used a bogus name] and that name has gotten pre-approved credit card offers in addition to the other stuff you mention! Every time I see a story about how much banks lose annually to CC fraud, I just laugh.