Identity Theft Countermeasures? 609
gbell asks: "Stories about reconstructing shredded documents and horrific tales of rampant identity theft (at least 750K victims/year) have me scared and wondering if I'm being careful enough. What are savvy Slashdot readers doing to protect their financial identity? I already have fraud alerts on my credit reports, which make sure I'm contacted if any requests for additional credit happen. I've called 800-5-OPT-OUT and stopped all the credit card offers. I use unique passwords on all of my online financial accounts. I shred and pulp-ify all documents. I order periodic copies of my credit reports (although I'm irked that I have to pay for them - they're only free if you've been recently denied credit). Is there anything else I should be doing? People spend years sorting out ID theft, and I'm wondering when credit-abusers will start crying 'fraud' just to get out of debt... making things even harder for the true victims. Cops don't have time to do anything, even if you find the perp yourself. The situation looks like it's going to get much worse, and I'm willing to take steps now to increase my security at the cost of convenience. Suggestions?"
You're overreacting (Score:1, Insightful)
use unique passwords on all of my online financial accounts. I shred and pulp-ify all documents. I order periodic copies of my credit reports...
I really don't think all of this is necessary. And where did you hear that there were 750,000 cases of identity theft anually? I think this is a stretch. How is identity theft being defined in this report? Would you clasify credit card fraud as identity theft? In that case the number might be accurate, but cc fraud is mostly just a hassle for you as the credit card company and their insurance company are the ones who are liable.
Cops don't act (Score:2, Insightful)
I would just like to point out that this is not necessarily a problem of "not having time" as much as it's a problem of incentives. Cops are not incentivized to reduce the quantity of crime. Legislators are somewhat incentivized to reduce crime, or at least appear to be trying, but almost none of that actually trickles down to the department itself. Certainly there are plenty of honest individuals in the police force - but an institution as a whole, unfortunately, tends to follow its incentives regardless of how moral and honest its constituent members are. What we need is to reward police departments for actually reducing the reported crime. This of course would require a separate third party or ombudsman to report the crime to so that departments couldn't just ignore the crime reports. But IMHO this would force police departments to be more creative and proactive about reducing actual crime. Right now their biggest incentive is to get their traffic ticket quotas in each month.
-Ansel.
Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Two men... (Score:5, Insightful)
are about to be pounced upon by a man-eating tiger. One man starts to properly lace up and tighten his running shoes. The second one looks at him and says, "Do you think you can outrun a tiger?"
The first man replies, "I don't have to outrun the tiger - I just have to outrun you."
You're taking all the right steps to protect yourself - short of becoming an unperson, you can't become totally secure. People who resort to breaking the law to get what they want, as a general rule, are not interested in working any harder than necessary. Make sure that stealing your identity is quite a bit tougher than that of the guy next door, and let diminishing returns work for you.
Social Security Number (Score:2, Insightful)
Do not use your social security number for anything other than taxes and social security. Once someone has your name and SSN, they can sign up for credit cards in your name.
Health insurance, higher education organizations, etc. love using SSN because it is unique. These organizations can not require you to give your SSN.
When signing up for new service, write Please assign number in the SSN box. Most places I have done this with are happy to comply. If you already have accounts with your SSN as your id, CHANGE IT and just tell your doctors your insurance number changed.
Re:You're overreacting (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Pass laws stopping the profileration of personal data between Corps without your consent
2) Hold companies accountable if they mishandle your personal data
I think #2 is the big one. It is unbelievable to me that TRW, Equifax, et al can compile massive databases on people without our consent that governs whether or not you can even rent an apartment and then disavow all accountability when that data is inaccurate or misappropriated.
X
Paying for Credit Reports (Score:4, Insightful)
If you are like me and really pissed off, and have some good advice on legislation that can be supported to change all this, please post it below.
Re:You're overreacting (Score:5, Insightful)
That aside, I have taken these measures to avoid identity theft:
1) Removed any mention of my social security number from my wallet. This required complaining to my health insurance company to get a new ID Number and renewing my driver's license in person. Well worth it.
2) Destroy all "preapproved" credit card offers. Mostly this means just ripping to shreads the unique IDs/barcodes and addresses that are inkjetted on to the press or laser printed form.
3) Never give passwords or financial information to financial web sites that are not required to complete transactions. This will minimize your exposure to hacking.
Many states have laws allowing you to get a free credit report if you suspect you've been denied credit due to an error in credit bureau records. If you're still nervous without being denied credit, get a low cost credit report for about $30 from a company such as TrueCredit.com [truecredit.com].
Re:Cops don't act (clueless) (Score:2, Insightful)
It would be nice if police did decide to have some semblance of a rational prioritization of infractions. So, if 'identity theft' is too piddling an issue for law enforcement to bother handling, why should having a broken tail light consume their 'precious' time?
Insurance? (Score:3, Insightful)
Want to be scared? Think about this. (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's do some math:
Average price per name US identity $30
That's 7.5 Million.
What's stopping me?
Hmm morals, US citizenship that I wish to keep, going to jail, family I would want to see again.. etc..
Now what's it take to buy yourself protection in Indonesia, India, Russia, China.. blah blah blah.. Do you think if that H1-B person garnered data for 2-3 months, after they found a contact that would buy the names, and made 22.5 million that they would care if they did something illegal? Hell no.. they have their original citizenship, they care nothing for the US now that they have made enough money to buy a small army of guns and lawyers to keep extridtion nothing buy a distant nightmare. What's worse, do you think anyone would ever find out what the source of this theft was? Probably not until Joe Somebody is arrested in his own home for a crime he didn't commit.
USE CASH! (Score:5, Insightful)
You may think the cashless society is more convenient (and in many ways it is unless you are in line behind ten people collecting airmiles and using their debit cards - if they could just pick the right account or PIN....), but the cashless society also makes tracking all your habits much easier for the IRS, the FBI, CIA, DARPA, or any other acronym you choose. Why make it too easy for them.
Use cash (and the barter system is always good too, wherever possible), and give out as little personal information in any given transaction as you can. this helps to protect you not just from ID thieves, but from unwanted corporate data-mining or government intrusion as well.
A thriving black market is a neccesary check against unlimited government control.
Re:Yeah, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Paying for Credit Reports (Score:3, Insightful)
I have a minor quibble with this statement -- having/using credit cards is not the same as being "in debt". It is pefectly easy to help your credit by using a credit card in an intelligent manner: simply pay it off at the end of the month. It mystifies me that many people are afraid of going into debt if they use credit cards.
Of course using a credit card in this manner won't help nearly as much as buying a car and paying it off, but it'll certainly do more than paying in cash everywhere and complaining about the system
happened to me :( (Score:2, Insightful)
1. Destroyed credit report, six years and still not fixed.
2. Can't get credit.
3. Can't get a job without going through hell (good thing I like my current one)and most employers don't want to deal with trying to figure out if you are telling the truth or not.
4. $2,500.00 in direct financial damage from the actual crime (banks don't cover anything when it's checks that are stolen)
5. I spend between five to ten hours a week, every week, for the last six years, dealing with this. Can't even guess what that has cost.
But don't worry, it doesn't happen, just read some of the posts!
So, by all means, don't shred your receipts, that's paranoid. Don't bother with checking credit reports every year, the banks cover it, right? By all means, use your Social Security number for your Slashdot ID, and never worry about buying stuff online or subscribing to that porn site in Taiwan. You're just overreacting.
\We're fucked. (Score:1, Insightful)
But I've found that in the course of avoiding starvation, my efforts to obtain employment requires me to provide perspective employers with information that is vulernable to identity theft. That includes all the regular stuff, SS number and so forth. But even more than that companies require copies of birth certificates, extensive personal surveys (including mother's maiden name), and so on. Excaberating the issue is these companies demand permission to share this information with "associates" , which most likely include anyone, anything, including the gential lice that browse the nether regions of every whore on the planet.
I am a person who is aware of, and values extremely, the preservation of personal information. I cannot maintain those attitudes and find employment. The only place in town that's hiring requires a copy of my birth certificate. I had the choice of following my ideals and starving or submitting to a policy that I found repulisive and having enough money to buy food.
And now that piece of information lies in digitized form somewhere, most likely destined to be shared with "associates", who may very well be scattered across the country, or even places like India.
If companies connot prove they can keep personal information secure, they should not be in the business of collecting such information.
File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy (Score:1, Insightful)
Damn it feels so good to breath again.
AAAAhhhhhhhhhh!
side affect?
No one will touch your identity with a 10 foot pole.
Protecting your Credit from Identity Theft (Score:3, Insightful)
When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.
Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box use your work address.
Never have your SS# printed on your checks (DUH!) -- you can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine, do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.
Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Also, carry a photocopy of your passport when you travel either here or abroad.
Here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them easily.
File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
But here's what is perhaps most important:
Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.
The numbers are:
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
Re:To all you laughing at this, it happened to me (Score:5, Insightful)
The companies love to say "prove you didn't open the account."
And the proper response is "prove that I *did*". Remember, if you did, they should be able to show signatures, security photos, etc. If you want to get brutal, simply sue them for defamation and subpoena those items.
This stuff will stop when people start actually fighting back against the companies that are facilitating it.
Reasons (Score:2, Insightful)