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No-Fail Identity Theft – Live and In Person

ancientribe writes "A researcher performing social-engineering exploits on behalf of several US banks and other firms in the past year has 'stolen' thousands of identities with a 100 percent success rate. He and his team have posed as investigators for the FDIC (among other things), and numerous times have literally been able to walk out the door with pilfered identities. The reason: organizations are typically so focused on online ID theft that they've forgotten how easy it is for a criminal to socially engineer his way into a bank branch or office and physically hack it."

3 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. How to "steal" an identity. by apathy+maybe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Step one, find a birth certificate for a person of the same gender as you, and around the same ago.

    Register at your local university and obtain student card in the name of the person on the birth certificate, withdraw before you have to pay anything (this step may vary with your university, I know it is possible at the Uni that I attended).

    Obtain utility bills in the name of the person on the birth certificate.

    There you go, 100 points of ID!

    Use to obtain other forms of ID etc. (If you're in the USA finding the social security number would probably be useful too.)

    If the person isn't dead (to create a "new" id, make sure that the birth certificate is for a person who died quite young), then you can have a field day getting access to whatever.

    Enjoy.

    --
    I wank in the shower.
  2. Re:Wholesale versus Retail by Kingston · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes, unless the "in-person" thief can pocket a couple of CDs with the personal details of almost all the families in the UK on it.

  3. Re: Here We Go Again... by Wildclaw · · Score: 3, Informative

    Banks make money by borrowing your money (at a low interest rate) and loaning it out to someone else (at a higher interest rate). I

    Not quite true. That is the school level illusion that most people live under. The current money system in most countries today is far more insidious than that, allowing banks to lawfully lend out money(debt) created from nothing. Yes, they need some money deposited, but it is far less than what is lent out.

    You should really see the documentary "Money as debt" (just search on youtube). While it may be slightly preachy and biased at some moments, a large part of it is a good description of how the money system really works.

    Still, your basis assumption and discussion point regarding them wanting your money is correct, because the bank do need it to be able to lend out these even larger amounts of money. Actually, it is even more important for them to get your money as they can lend out a multiple of it.