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Credit Industry Opposes Anti-ID Theft Method

Posted by kdawson on from the frozen-out dept.

athloi alerts us to an opinion piece running in USA Today on the backlash against an effective tool to fight identity theft. The big three credit bureaus don't like the numerous state laws that have been passed requiring them to give consumers a simple way to freeze their credit. Watch for a push at the federal level to get a watered-down statute that pre-empts state laws. "Lawmakers across the country — pushed by consumer advocacy groups — ... have passed laws that allow consumers to freeze their credit, a surefire way to prevent thieves from opening new accounts or obtaining a mortgage in a consumer's name. Under a freeze, a consumer cuts off all access to his credit report and score, even his own. All lenders require that information, so no one can borrow money in the consumer's name until he or she lifts the freeze. It's simple, and it works. So, of course, it's under threat from the Consumer Data Industry Association, which represents the Big Three credit bureaus. They make millions gathering and selling consumer data. Freezes cut into that business."

3 of 434 comments (clear)

  1. LINUX IS A STINKING PIECE OF SHIT!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I was using gAIM, the crappy MSN (and some other useless services) client for Linux. Except lacking almost every feature, it's also pretty hard to configure it to disable sounds and popping-up when a new conversation is started. Sure there are some options, but they don't seem to save!

    Well, I guess it's like the rest of the Linux environment. No testing at all. Linux geeks are just pointless time wasters, browsing the web and chatting on IM services about idiotic topics (like Linux).

    You are failures...

    1. Re:LINUX IS A STINKING PIECE OF SHIT!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Well, we got you to waste your time failing at using Linux, so we succeeded at our neferious scheme of making clueless asshats look like clueless asshats in a public forum. We may be failures, but "YOU LOSE!" :) HTH. HAND.

  2. A Nasty Approach to Fixing the Problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    If your Win 98/2000/XP/Vista/etc..., What ever works for you. If your machine is performing slower on start up and shutdown, disable the preloaded 3rd party anti-virus software, or just install 6 different ones and/or down load as much freeware/shareware as you want. As a user, according to Microsoft's own philosophy, you are not allowed/required to know what's going on internally anyway.

    This is not the "Average Users" fault, why should they be responsible for it? Let the freaking Internet (version 2.0 included) run amuck for a couple months, and have Microsoft clean up the mess. They made it anyway. Then something might get fixed.