Slashdot Mirror
FTC Recruiting Identity Theft Victims
coondoggie writes "In an effort to buttress its enforcement and better understand the scourge that is identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission said today its plans to conduct a wide-ranging study of victims of the crime.
The FTC is looking for people harmed by the crime and said the survey will examine the remedies available to victims under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act). Among other things, the FACT Act gave consumers the right to place fraud alerts on their credit files if they are, or suspect they may become, victims of identity theft; block information on their credit reports that resulted from identity theft; and obtain copies of their credit reports free of charge."
They asked me for my social security number and date of birth to verify I was the person they meant to call and told me they'd be getting back to me real soon.
JADBP
Shred and don't be stupid. Blockbuster does not need your SSN.
Recruiting, eh? I can imagine the phone calls going something like this:
"Hi, Mr. Phillips, I'm from the FTC, and we've heard that you've recently been the victim of identity theft."
"Yes, yes that's true!"
"To verify that the study is accurate, could I have your date of birth please?"
"Sure, it's September 17th, 1964."
"I have the first digit of your SSN as '6', is that correct?"
"Yes."
"Could you read off the rest of it for me?"
A government agency applying some scientific method the the efficacy of law?
Just the concept blows me away.
Victims are required to provide their mother's maiden name, credit card and social insurance number.
As long as the FBI is mandating that credit card fraud is "identity theft" there will never be any sort of accurate numbers as to real, honest-to-goodness identity theft. Today, every time someone uses your credit card number on an online site and the charge is really submitted, this is considered "identity theft".
The truth is that use of SSNs and fraudulently applying for loans and such is incredibly rare. It is so rare as to almost not be a problem - except the folks at Life Lock and others do not want you to find this out. They want to get their money from you for protecting you from something that almost never happens.
Almost everyone I know has been a "victim" of credit card fraud. Only problem was, they weren't really the victim. The merchant was. I've never heard of anyone actually losing anything because of credit card fraud. Now, if you use a debit card instead of a credit card you are asking for trouble because you will lose with those. No, I don't know anyone that has lost money - probably because they had more sense than to use a debit card for purchases.
I once went to Blockbuster to see what I needed to do to rent a movie and was handed this form that looked like a loan application. I handed it back saying they didn't need all that information. All they need is to know if I can pay.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Ha what a joke! Ever since doing the "free credit report" I've been getting spammed by trans union offering their pay for service. Frankly it's MY life, MY history and MY credit data why the #&$%@#%& should I have to pay them at ALL to correct their constant screw ups? They are making money selling it they should be forced to pay ME to use it.
THEY SHOULD ALSO BE 100% LIABLE WHEN IT IS ABUSED!!!!! Credit reporting agencies are the source of the problem and the enablers of credit fraud.
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
Now I don't know who I am, or why I have several fake ID's in my posession. I don't know why I am efficient in killing heavily trained soldiers with my bare hands. I only know one thing: My name is Jason Bourne.
I tried volunteering for this
But they said I had already signed up yesterday.
Let me introduce myself. I am Professor Mugabawabe from the Country of Nigeria.
I have been contracted to the American Federal Trade Comission for the express purpose of researching identity theft victims and possibly to assist them in recovering potentially MILLIONS in punitive damages.
In order to perform my research I ask that you send me the following information:
* Full Name
* Address of domicile
* Social Security Number (completely secure - will be compared against our records)
* Date of Birth
For statistical purposes, we ask for the following:
* Average household income
* Method of employ
Thank you for your time in this matter. If you haven't been a victim of identity theft but know of someone who has, please forward this on to them.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mugabawabe
Comment removed based on user account deletion
These people have some balls, it's actually kind of funny.
They sent me a letter in the mail pretending to be my bank, saying there are suspicious charges and to call this fraud number. Had the right mailing address and all of the logo's..etc
Of course the number was a phishing scam! They were asking me security questions to verify I was the cardholder, and little did I know my card was already maxed out 4 days ago. I'm guessing they wanted to reuse my information to call my bank and request the credit limit to be increased so they could keep on spending.
Fortunately my bullshit detector went off and I hung up, cross referenced the number..etc which confirmed my suspicions. I called the actual fraud line about 30 seconds later to take care of my slip up, and that's when I found out about all of the other charges. The BS part about it all is that none of the charges ever showed up on my online transaction history, so even if I were checking that by the hour I never would have been tipped off.
Anyway these guys can be pretty sneaky, but I was really disappointed in Chase for not having the transactions posted. At least I'm told that I won't have to pay any of the fees.
In fact, why not extend this idea. Why not have mandatory oversight of all new laws and amendments for the first 2 years of enactment to see if they actually help or hinder their original intent?
Twinstiq, game news
In the past, I have conducted background investigations for the DoD as a contractor. I came across some very interesting credit histories on a guy and had to ask him some questions. I cannot go into details but, simply put:
When he was too young to work, someone began working under his name and SSN. He did not discover this until he was in his late teens. When he contacted the IRS, the IRS was concerned, but they MADE TWO SEPARATE ACCOUNTS UNDER THE SAME SSN TO DISTINGUISH THE TWO.
This was quite alarming to me, though it satisfied my goals in the investigation. I could not understand how the IRS would take such a haphazard approach to dealing with identity theft. How can they continue to allow a person to work, obviously illegally, under a stolen identity? Yes, I know the IRS merely collects taxes, but they were collecting from a stolen identity long after they were made aware.
--------------------
From this, the flaw is lack of governmental intercooperation regarding identity theft. I cannot attest to present time, but in 2005, the IRS was still allowing the thief to work and pay taxes.
The employer (pretty big company) and location were well known, yet the 'thief' was not stopped over several years. ........ I can only hope our various branches are now working together to protect our citizens first.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What about the in-quotes "identity theft" victims? Like a friend of mine. She had a hold placed on her account and was turned down for a car loan because someone had asked for credit in her name, with her SSN and address and other info. So the identity monopoly ( or is it really 3 separate companies?) decided to block all access without telling her.
All to put the story back in order, she got denied and inquired as to why, and that was the reason the lender gave. Took her 2 years to straighten out. Here's the kicker - the identity thief was identified, rather easily actually ad it was actually herself. When applying for something or other else, someone changed her newly re-maidened name back to her previous married name on the application, to "correct" a mistake. It went through fine at the time, but everything thereafter sent up warning flags.
I think that shows more problems with identity systems than actual theft does, in the same way that a fever shows more problems than an actual infection does.
"FTC Rounding up Identity theft victims"
See that long UID - that's what you get for lurking too long
intentions, motivations yet unknown, but observation correct.
Hackers have long memories. It works both ways.
They're only doing that because Congress forced them to.
One free credit report per year, per credit bureau.
These sharks are only doing it because the feds have a gun to their heads.
Anyone who thinks they are doing you a favor here is seriously deluded.