Experian Sold Social Security Numbers To ID Theft Service

realized writes "Experian — one of the three national U.S. credit bureaus — reportedly sold SSNs through its subsidiary, Court Ventures, to the operators of SuperGet.info who then offered all of the information online for a price. The website would advertise having '99% to 100% of all USA' in their database on websites frequented by carders. Hieu Minh Ngo, the website owner, was recently been indicted for 15-counts filed under seal in November 2012, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, substantive wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identity fraud, substantive identity fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and substantive access device fraud."

Comments

Probably a downmod coming but..

[Anonymous Coward]

WHAT THE FUCK!!!?!!!?

Since you mentioned Experian

[Anonymous Coward]

These are the same people who offer to counsel you for $15, with a made-up number (even more made up than FICO) with fine print like this: "your Experian Credit Score indicates your relative credit risk level for educational purposes and is not the score used by lenders". Yep, super class act all the way. Even among credit rating scams, er "agencies", they are the worst.

And when will Experian be charged?

[Anonymous Coward]

The US Credit system is a racket designed to screw people. I have been fighting a bogus charge on my credit report for years and I would love to see the power that these behemoths lowered.

Granted, I do not know of a superior way to track people, but the amount of destruction caused by identity theft or improper billing is insane.

Re:And when will Experian be charged?

[bradley13]

"Granted, I do not know of a superior way to track people"

How about this for an idea: don't track them.

Let's be real: These credit reporting agencies bring zero added value to the system. If you want a loan, go to the bank, show them certified copies of your pay statements, sign a legal document listing your other debts (or whatever other information the bank needs for a decision), and that ought to be it. There is zero need for anyone to know that you were three days late on a credit card payment in March of 2007.

These agencies are a blight. They are in the same category as Facebook: you are not the customer, your personal data is a product that they sell to anyone that will pay for it.

Who watches the watchers?

[gstoddart]

So if the credit bureau is selling all of the information to the identify thieves you're pretty much fucked.

Sounds like this company is playing both ends against the middle and needs to be shutdown.

Pathetic.

Re:Who watches the watchers?

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Wasn't there some law that stated that when data breaches like this happen the company has to pay for credit monitoring for those affected. Given that it sounds like they may have distributed all US citizens' info it might be enough to sink their company. Then again I may only be remembering some proposed law that died a quiet death in some committee.

And no one at experian will ever be charged.

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though Experian was selling the info, only the people who bought it will get punished.

Re:And no one at experian will ever be charged.

[PraiseBob]

an argument exists that Experian would not have had any way of realizing the nature of who they were selling it to

Excuse me? You are saying there is a valid argument that they have no way of knowing whom they are doing business with?

They have permanently compromised a system that hundreds of millions of people use every single day. They have made every single citizen subject to fraud, and have no ability to fix it, except conveniently through their business model. This breach will STILL be an issue ruining people's lives 20 years from now, and we will have to beg Experian to correct the problems they caused, and even pay them for the privilege. The economic damage could reach well into the trillions of dollars, there is virtually no cap, since it undermines the entire credit system of every citizen currently alive, for their entire lifetime. Every executive at the company should be put to a firing squad.

Re:And, who has the Obamacare ID validation contra

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh god, is Slashdot now The Blaze, where everyone has Obama Derangement Syndrome and every single comment has to tie to Obama, no matter how loosely related they are?

Why do SSNs persist?

[necro81]

I have a general question: why does the Social Security Number endure as the primary key of, well, every kind of financial account or transaction in the United States. The SSN - how it's assigned, how it's revoked, the regulations regarding who can use it and for what, what necessary safeguards are in place to prevent theft or misuse, its anonymity or lack thereof - was never intended for the tasks that it is now burdened with. It's broken in so many ways that it would be hilarious - if the consequences were not so dire.

Is it just that this is the system that we in the US are stuck with, and that's that? How do other countries handle this? What are the potential alternatives? What are the true requirements for a "master identifier key", and how can they be realized in a way accessible to all people? How can we convince the business and banking community to stop using the SSN - not because they're forced to, but because it's such an awful liability?

Which politicians' identities need to be stolen in order to put such a system in place?

Re:Why do SSNs persist?

[Cro Magnon]

The problem, IMHO, isn't SSN as an identifier. It's that SSN is used as a password! I wouldn't care if everyone knew that xxx-xx-xxxx belonged to Cro Magnon, but when someone can buy a car in my name with just that number, that's a serious problem.

What about Experian?

[gr8_phk]

Hieu Minh Ngo, the website owner, was recently been indicted for 15-counts filed under seal in November 2012, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, substantive wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identity fraud, substantive identity fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and substantive access device fraud.

Why does someone at one level of the crime get charged but not the one at the top. Remember:

Experian — one of the three national U.S. credit bureaus — reportedly sold SSNs through its subsidiary, Court Ventures, to the operators of SuperGet.info

Why are they not being charged? Using SSNs for certain things is illegal, and selling them probably is too - otherwise what did the other guy do wrong?

Re:Why is SSN secret?

[Anonymous Coward]

And how do you keep your mothers maiden name a secret?
Do you kill her and her parents and wipe out all traces of them?
Why do they use stupid shit like this to identify someone.

US credit reporting violates privacy of millions

[bradley13]

Credit reporting ought to have everyone up in arms anyway. Every company an American does business with sends personal, financial details to these agencies. No permission required. The agencies themselves have a shared monopoly, but the size of their market is static. So they are always looking for quasi-legal ways to make even more money by selling your personal data. Sometimes quasi-illegal.

The whole system stinks. Americans need to get themselves some privacy rights...

Re:And, who has the Obamacare ID validation contra

[mcgrew]

For fuck's sake, it has nothing to do with obamacare. Stay on topic and stop trolling.

OK, so they put the ID theft guy in prison, how about having Experian's CEO in an adjoining cell? Why is it legal for Experian to sell my SS#??? I never gave them permission for that.

Re:Probably a downmod coming but..

[Scutter]

At the very least, Experian's board should be held accountable by its shareholders for gross negligence in failing to do its due diligence during the purchase.

Re:15 counts of wire fraud explained.

[I'm New Around Here]

And my understanding is that once the card is opened, it's now on the consumer to dispute everything about the card,

I never understood that line of thought. If someone, e.g. a bank, says I owe them money because I agreed to repay them money they loaned to someone who claimed to be me, my first question would be "Where is the paper I signed?". If the contract was made at a branch of the bank, such as for a loan, my next question would be "Where is the video footage of me at that bank?".

Because if they don't have those two items, and they indisputably prove it is me, they have absolutely no case to try to extort money from me. They can go after the actual person they gave money or credit to. Why should it not be that way for all cases of so-called "identity theft"? It used to be called "bank fraud", which firmly shows the bank is the victim of fraud, and should have been more diligent in its actions. Instead they now imply the party who should have been more pro-active is the person whose name was used without their knowledge.

Stop calling it ID theft, call it bank fraud, and tell the banks they can get their money from whomever they decided to give it to.