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The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

washingtonpost.com

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Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#41

Post by toast0 »

kartan wrote: post #3

How much is this connected to not having a real id card? For me is always weird when you see things like "no flight lists" and it is just a list of names. In Spain or Sweden your ID will be listed and the rest of people named like you spared of being harassed. Another concept that I don't understand is that USA's social security number has to be kept secret or otherwise your identity can be stolen. How that is even p…

> Another concept that I don't understand is that USA's social security number has to be kept secret or otherwise your identity can be stolen. How that is even possible? Doesn't your employer needs it?

It doesn't make sense, but basically knowing name, date of birth, and social security number is enough to open a credit account (sometimes you have to answer some questions which would be on a credit report, or provide an ID card if you're doing it in person). This is why it's important to try to keep it secret; on the other hand, employers are required to have it for taxation purposes, as well as any creditors (including utilities) want it too; most health insurance is driven by SSN too, and so are many health records; so the number is all over the place.

Court records (the issue in this article) wouldn't normally include a social security number, so the credit agency is 'helpfully' associating those by name, maybe date of birth, and city of residence with other records in their files.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#42

Post by ourmandave »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #19
halviti wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this makes perfect sense and works great in the rest of the world, ID numbers in the US have been talked about, but have faced resistance from two groups.. those that think that this is somehow an invasion of privacy, and those that think that this somehow correlates with the 'mark of the beast' and signals the end of humanity according to the bible. (not joking)

Individual states already issue identification cards, and people use that all the time for this purpose. In a system like the US, I think it's better for the states to handle identification cards, not the federal government. There's a lot of details that go into identifying someone, and your local state is best equipped to handle that. To give a few examples: What's the procedure for changing your name? A lot of peop…

> If the federal government runs it, now they have to own or rent a bunch of land in every major city in every state so they can service id card requests.

Don't we already have that with the post offices and the passport system?

Couldn't they expand passports into a Federal ID system?

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#44

Post by sokoloff »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #19
halviti wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this makes perfect sense and works great in the rest of the world, ID numbers in the US have been talked about, but have faced resistance from two groups.. those that think that this is somehow an invasion of privacy, and those that think that this somehow correlates with the 'mark of the beast' and signals the end of humanity according to the bible. (not joking)

Individual states already issue identification cards, and people use that all the time for this purpose. In a system like the US, I think it's better for the states to handle identification cards, not the federal government. There's a lot of details that go into identifying someone, and your local state is best equipped to handle that. To give a few examples: What's the procedure for changing your name? A lot of peop…

That's a very practical argument and I agree with it.

The Tenth Amendment's Reserved Powers clause also suggests this is a states issue, unless you can contrive it to be part of the census.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#45

Post by xanderstrike »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #31
superuser2 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Driver license numbers change when you move, so are not useful for things meant to be long term like credit.

I suppose this depends on the state. California driver's license numbers don't change, even if you move away, get a different one, then come back years later and get one back in California.

Yeah but while you're in a different state your "current driver's license" is the one from that state. Effectively it changes when you move, and changes again when you go back.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#46

Post by pdkl95 »

kartan wrote: post #3

How much is this connected to not having a real id card? For me is always weird when you see things like "no flight lists" and it is just a list of names. In Spain or Sweden your ID will be listed and the rest of people named like you spared of being harassed. Another concept that I don't understand is that USA's social security number has to be kept secret or otherwise your identity can be stolen. How that is even p…

> How much is this connected to not having a real id card?

None. The credit reporting agency should be verifying any facts they intent to include in a report. If the are including unverified hearsay, the their report may be libel[1].

Also, your own ID card wouldn't fix someone else with either no ID or fraudulent ID doing something in your name. If the bank gave a loan to someone else, that's their problem, not yours.

[1] I'm aware that regulatory capture has granted the agencies immunity from slander/libel laws. Just because unethical behavior has been legalized doesn't make it the victim's responsibility to work around libelous claims.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#47

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

ourmandave wrote: post #29
kartan wrote: post #3

How much is this connected to not having a real id card? For me is always weird when you see things like "no flight lists" and it is just a list of names. In Spain or Sweden your ID will be listed and the rest of people named like you spared of being harassed. Another concept that I don't understand is that USA's social security number has to be kept secret or otherwise your identity can be stolen. How that is even p…

So how does a real ID work? Here, places verify you over the phone by the last 4 digits of your social security number, so you have to keep it secret. If I'm evil and know your ID what can I get away with without a card? And what can I do with a decent fake card?

There are different systems for different things. The Id card is typically verified by looking it up in a database and by a person comparing your picture.

For online usage you need digital identity cards and they have two factor or are hardware tokens.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#48

Post by [deleted] »

ourmandave wrote: post #29
kartan wrote: post #3

How much is this connected to not having a real id card? For me is always weird when you see things like "no flight lists" and it is just a list of names. In Spain or Sweden your ID will be listed and the rest of people named like you spared of being harassed. Another concept that I don't understand is that USA's social security number has to be kept secret or otherwise your identity can be stolen. How that is even p…

So how does a real ID work? Here, places verify you over the phone by the last 4 digits of your social security number, so you have to keep it secret. If I'm evil and know your ID what can I get away with without a card? And what can I do with a decent fake card?

[deleted]

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#49

Post by deftnerd »

sokoloff wrote: post #39
halviti wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were born before 1989, your SSN can be guessed with 44% accuracy by an algorithm. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2009/07/social-security-numbe...

> If you were born before 1989, your SSN can be guessed with 44% accuracy by an algorithm. The actual situation is quite a bit less dire than your quote. What that linked article says is that for people born AFTER 1989, the first five digits could be guessed with 44% accuracy. (There's a very real sense that the "last 4 of your social" are less guessable than the first five, so it's no surprise that the last 4 is wha…

I've seen multiple databases that have the results of asking the user to enter the "last 4 of your SSN"

If you have those last 4 digits, and you can guess the first 5 digits with nearly 50% accuracy, then you have a very good chance on getting legitimate SSN's for mass numbers of people with a DB dump.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#50

Post by Asooka »

Here's something I've wanted to know for a while: How is a foreigner emigrating to the USA (or Canada I guess) supposed to function? We don't use credit cards in my country (we use direct debit cards) and I've never had any debt to my name. On the other hand, I've always paid all my bills on time. Do you get some sort of crappy default credit score given based on estimated factors, or are you SOL until you've lived long enough to establish a credit history?
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